Super Smash Brothers Betrayal
by Catnip820
Summary: As the smashers battle in their largest tournament of every man for themselves, a small group betrays them. They realize that they must come together to defeat their unexpected enemies. Disclaimer: I own absolutely no characters mentioned in this story.
1. An Average Day

The day started as any other tournament day had– the smashers readying themselves for their next round. The giant tournament was not even close to coming to its close – 35 had entered, and 35 were still in. The elimination hadn't begun yet, and, although to anybody else it would have become boring by now, the smashers were still enjoying themselves. Those on top had gotten off to a good start, as 8 rounds had been played. Those on the bottom still had 26 more chances to begin their reign.

Mario strode out of his room, gloves tight and hat on, ready to face his opponent that day – Donkey Kong. Mario, so far having 5 wins and 3 losses, was doing very well. Donkey Kong, however, was doing slightly better, with a record of 6 wins and only 2 losses. If Mario were to trump this foe, it would be very good in showing the others what he could do. He thought a bit as he walked towards Final Destination, where the next matches would be announced by R.O.B., the tournament's organizer. As he made his way there, he saw Luigi.

"Hey, Luigi!" he called out. Luigi turned and smiled.

"Hello there, Mario," smiled Luigi. He sighed.

"What's-a wrong?" questioned Mario.

"Today I'm in the 3-way," replied Luigi worriedly. Every tournament day [Monday, Wednesday, or Friday] had a 3-way match, where 3 people would fight in the match. Some people had to go through the 3-way more than once. Whether the 3-way was good or bad depended on the individuals fighting, and it was apparent that Luigi did not want to be included.

"You'll do-a fine, bro!" Mario assured him.

"Thank you, bro. I'll do my best," replied Luigi, sounding less worried. They arrived at Final Destination, finding that they weren't the first – yet not the last – ones there. Mario and Luigi decided to stand next to Peach as R.O.B. made the daily announcements.

"Alright, if you're not here yet, then you're late and will have to catch up later!" said the shockingly emotional robot. "Today's meals will be served at 11 A.M., 2 P.M., and 7 P.M. Matches will run between these times. The first match today will be Mario VS. Donkey Kong!"

Mario looked up. He hadn't even eaten breakfast! Hopefully, neither had Donkey Kong. He looked over. Donkey Kong was munching on a banana. He then gave the peel to Diddy. Donkey Kong smiled at Mario, and Mario smiled back.

"Are both contestants ready?" asked R.O.B. Both nodded. "Then may the match begin!"

Suddenly, Mario felt himself tugged upward and then downward rapidly. They had warped to Battlefield, an unpleasant experience. Mario shook it off and got ready. Donkey Kong was flexing and smiling with ambition.

"Ready…" reported Wario, that match's appointed ref. "Go!"


	2. The Adventure Begins

Donkey Kong charged forward at Mario quickly. Mario hopped upwards onto a platform, and DK did the same, albeit with a fist out. Mario was hit hard into the air, but came down quickly. DK tried to clap him, but Mario did a quick air dodge to avoid it. Mario then continued to pound the ape. DK hopped away, onto a different platform, and grabbed a Barrel that had appeared. He chucked it at Mario, but Mario reflected it with his cape, causing it to fall to the ground between them and shatter. No way – this early in the match? A _Smashball_?

Donkey Kong leaped for it, slamming his foot down and crushing it – however, it wasn't done, and flew upwards quickly. Mario used his Super Jump Punch, but missed unfortunately. Donkey Kong double-jumped his way to the top platform and tried to smack the ball, but he missed, too! The ball was hovering over the right platform, and Mario jumped at it when, out of nowhere, he was slammed in the back of the head by a green shell. A shell must have appeared next to DK. Mario flew off the stage and managed to recover – but it was too late. As soon as he was back on his two feet, he saw DK glowing with the power of the Smashball.

READY? GO!

DK was slamming away on his famed bongos, knocking Mario all around. Mario couldn't escape it, until DK knocked him away with a long, green shockwave. However, it was enough. Mario plunged downward and fell with an explosion. He reappeared at the top, 2 lives remaining. As soon as DK finished, Mario jumped off his safety platform. DK was charging his Giant Punch, but stopped once Mario came down. DK ran at him, but Mario flipped him around with his cape. DK smacked nothing but air, allowing Mario to deal a somewhat charged smash attack to his back. DK flew to the edge of the stage but stopped himself, as Mario ran up behind him and slid, knocking DK off. DK jumped back on easily and dodged a smash attack from Mario. The match wasn't even close to over.

However, it never would end.

"Now!" Wario heard from his earpiece. He grinned.

"Halt the match!" he cried. Mario and DK stopped slamming the fuzz out of each other and turned. "Unfortunately…there has been a change in plans! Bwahahaha!" He jumped down and pulled out a small button. He pressed it and suddenly, the three were warped back to Final Destination. People were running around, and a hint of insanity was in the air.

"What is going on!" cried Falco. "R.O.B. said there was a huge emergency!"

"Yeah, we all got-a called here!" said Luigi.

"M-Mario!" Peach grabbed Mario and hugged him.

"Commence hacking!" yelled Dedede. Everyone spun around to see Dedede playing with R.O.B.'s insides, the robot's back opened and wires sticking out. R.O.B. was screaming and squirming. Suddenly, quickly, he stopped. His eyes glowed a fierce red.

"Wh-what is he doing!" cried Meta Knight.

"Stop him!" yelled Falco, dashing over. He was stopped by Wario, who punched in the beak. Mario, Donkey Kong, and Marth ran at him as well, but it was too late. Final Destination rumbled uncomfortably. Suddenly, it broke apart into many pieces, all separating rapidly.

"M-M-Mario!" screamed Peach. She and Luigi put their hands out, but Mario knew he wouldn't be able to make the jump. Mario waved to them with a great frown, as Peach broke down into tears. Luigi and Fox, who was also on their piece, tried to comfort her. One by one, the pieces were sucked upward at impeccable speed. Mario gulped hard as the piece next to his was taken away. Then, it was their turn. The adventure that was starting for them was unpredictable.


	3. Back and Soul Breaking Work

Mario woke up to being kicked, over and over. He opened his eyes and felt another slight kick.

"Stop," he said to no one in particular. The kicking stopped. He then tried to fall back asleep, but opened his eyes rapidly when he remembered yesterday's events. He sat up and looked around. They were still on their part of Final Destination – however, they were now surrounded by thick, metal walls. With him were Donkey Kong, Marth, and Falco, all of whom were already up. "Wh-what's-a going on?"

"We were abducted by Dedede, Wario, and possibly others. We don't know anything else," replied Marth.

"Abducted?" asked Mario. Marth nodded.

"Remember how our piece of the split Final Destination was drawn upward? I believe we are on some sort of ship – look at the walls. In addition, it feels like we are moving," explained Marth. Mario understood what Marth meant, beginning to feel the sensation of moving quickly. Mario sighed.

"Do we know anything about the others?" asked Mario. Suddenly, a piece of the ceiling opened above them. They all looked up to see Wario standing there with a wide grin.

"Why, hello, everybody!" he laughed. "I trust you enjoy our, ah, accommodations? You're our workers now, until we say so! Luckily for you, this can be an enjoyable experience. Here is how it works: you're good, you get rewarded. You're bad, you get punished. We can even make your piece of Final Destination go crashing down with no other problems, so you'd better be nice! Work time starts soon. The door to your left will open during that time. Any questions?"

"Yes, just one. What in the hell is going on!" demanded Falco hot-headedly.

Wario smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It's a game called revenge. And thus far, we are winning, and you are losing. If you're good, I'll explain more. How does that sound?" he laughed more and then slammed the portion of open ceiling above them shut. About 5 minutes later, the door to their left opened. A loudspeaker crackled, in Wario's majestic voice, "Work time, everyone! Proceed to your stations!"

The four in Mario's room looked to each other. They then decided to proceed. They walked through the door into what looked like a factory room. There were many giant tubs full of old, moldy Mushrooms, lined up next to incinerators. Leaned against each tub was a solid sized shovel. Wario's voice once again came on the loudspeaker, "Get shoveling! This ship doesn't power itself, you know!"

"Why should we help you!" yelled back Falco, despite the fact that he knew he would not be heard. However, he was incorrect.

"Because if you don't fuel the ship…we all go crashing down," said Wario, with a slight cackle. "Get working and you will be rewarded! Your partners will arrive soon…"

The 4 stood there, not knowing what to do. Mario then walked up to the first tub. He reluctantly took the shovel, grabbed about 4 'shrooms, and chucked them into the burning incinerator, to keep the ship afloat. The others sighed and followed him.

"We'll get out of this," whispered Mario. "Somehow,"

"We can brainstorm in our room," suggested Marth quietly. Mario nodded.

"Assuming they don't dump us," sighed Falco, joining the conversation. Suddenly, the door on the other end of the room opened. The four looked and saw some familiar faces – Samus Aran in her Zero Suit, Yoshi, Zelda, and Lucario.

"Samus!" said Mario, putting down his shovel and running to her. "What's happening? Have you-a seen anyone else? What about Peach, or my-a brother?"

Samus shook her head. "These 3 were the only ones on my piece. Is your room basically just a piece of Final Destination and some walls?"

Mario nodded. "Precisely,"

Suddenly, the door to Mario's room opened. The 8 turned to see Wario, unhappy, standing in the door. "Get back to work!" he snapped. Mario did as he was told, and Samus and her group did the same. "As I said before, you will be rewarded if you do well! Things such as extra food, furniture, blankets – even power,"

Samus stopped at this. Mario noticed. He then noticed her pick up the pace quite a bit. Had she perked up at blankets or…at power? Would Samus…betray them?

"Will you tell us what is going on?" asked Falco again. Wario nodded.

"You'll have to work very hard for that," informed Wario. Falco picked up the pace as well. "However, do poorly and remember, we can do anything, including – er – remove you," Wario smiled wickedly, causing Yoshi, DK, and Zelda to speed up. Only Mario and Lucario, enraged and unmovable, stayed at their moderate pace. Wario then left them and they continued to shovel away.

"I'm hungry," moaned Falco after 10 minutes. No one answered him. "I'm _really_ hungry," he continued.

"Maybe if you work hard, you'll get rewarded with food," suggested Samus, mostly to shut him up.

"I can't work hard on an empty stomach," he complained. He then thought a bit. "Hey, I'm starving!" he suddenly shouted to no one in particular. However, 2 minutes later, the door opened and Wario walked in.

"I heard one of us was hungry. Well, then, how about this? I can see how many mushrooms you have all shoveled in on the back of the incinerators. Once you make it to a certain amount, you get food. Understand?" explained Wario. They nodded. Wario looked at the back of the incinerators. "Once you make it to, eh, 400 mushrooms you'll get some food,"

"400!" cried Falco.

"That's not a lot, bird. You already have 320," said Wario. "Ms. Aran, congratulations. You may return to your room, where food will be waiting,"

"What! She already has 400?" asked Zelda, shocked.

"434, to be exact," said Wario. The room gasped. "More than double the amount you have for some of you," his eyes shifted to Mario. "Continue!"

The door to Samus's room opened, and she walked there silently. It closed behind her. Once Wario left, Falco asked what was on everyone's minds.

"Is she against us?" he questioned.

* * *

Peach wiped sweat from her brow. This was hard work. She was going so much slower than Luigi and Fox were. She wondered where Mario could be. She picked up her shovel and dumped another 3 Mushrooms into the incinerator.

"Come on, Peach," said Fox, trying to help. "You can do it,"

They were the only 3 in the large room that had 9 crates. Peach hoped they wouldn't have to finish all of them. Suddenly, the door next to them opened and Wario was seen.

"Alright, I have good news for this group. More helpers. Apparently this group had trouble waking up, so here they are, albeit quite late," said Wario, and in walked Link, Snake, Diddy Kong, and Toon Link.

"Link!" said Luigi. "Snake, Diddy and...also Link! You're all okay!"

"Good to see you," replied Link.

"Get to work and you will be rewarded, as explained by me before," commanded Wario. "Once the combined total of shoveled 'shrooms for this room is, say, 1500, you will get a break,"

"1500?" moaned Luigi. "How much do we have now?"

"657. Get working!" cackled Wario, loving his new job. He left them to themselves.

"Oh, Mario…" said Peach silently.

* * *

"Why won't you guys sing with me?" moaned Marth. He had tried to make the time go by easier by singing, but no one wanted to. "Come on, everyone!_ 'Cause all I have is, Redemption Songs!" _he tried.

"Give it up, Marth," replied Falco. "Thanks for trying,"

The door opened and Wario waddled in. He looked at the back of everyone's incinerators. "Falco, DK, Yoshi, Marth, you four are done. Go back to your rooms and enjoy," the four sighed and left. Wario looked sternly at Mario and Lucario, both on opposite sides of the room. "I can play this game longer than you can. We'll break you eventually," The two stayed silent. Wario walked out of the room silently as well.

* * *

"And…got it!" said Meta Knight triumphantly.

"Someone is coming!" warned Pit. Meta Knight got away from the back of his machine. Wario walked in.

"Hmm, let's see…nope…nope…nope…no- wait…Meta Knight, you may go back to your room. You have 400 exactly," said Wario, confused. "Although last time I checked I could have sworn you had only 235…oh well," Wario left, puzzled. However, Meta Knight did not. He jumped behind Wolf's incinerator and began playing with the counter using his blade. He had found a day to beat the system in less than a day. How sad. He wondered how the others were doing and hoped they had found a way to avoid doing the work.


	4. Marth VS Falco

Mario had his first bites of food in days. He ate heartily, after taking a solid 20 minutes longer than the others to finish scooping Mushrooms into the incinerator. He wasn't the last one there - not only was Lucario going slowly as a protest, he was also at full health, which, for him, meant he was at his weakest.

"Alright, how do we escape this?" asked Falco. "We need a plan. This can't go on,"

"There's nothing we can do," said Marth. "At least, not for now. Let's wait and humor them a bit,"

"No!" snapped Falco. "I'm not staying here any longer than I have to!"

"We don't have a choice," Marth returned. "What can we do? Nothing,"

Suddenly, the ceiling above them opened up. Wario poked his head through.

"Hello, boys," he greeted. "And congratulations. Because of your performance today, you have earned yourself 3 blankets to sleep on," Wario let 3 puffy yellow blankets fall.

"Great!" smiled Marth.

"Sweet dreams!" Wario wished. He closed the ceiling. Marth turned to Falco.

"See? Things are picking up," he said.

"Hmph. Wrong," moaned Falco. "He gave us 3 blankets and there are 4 of us. He did it on purpose,"

"…" Marth was silent, noticing the correctness in Falco's words.

"I guess I don't-a get a blanket," said Mario.

"Why do you think that?" asked Falco.

"I got my work finished last. It's my fault we didn't get 4 blankets," insisted Mario. Donkey Kong disagreed. He took the 3 blankets and distributed one to everyone – except for himself. Mario gave it back to him. "It's my fault," DK protested, shoving the blanket at Mario, but Mario shoved it back.

"This is ridiculous!" shouted Falco. "They're trying to tear us apart!"

"Well," Marth began. "He_ did_ finish last,"

"What? D-don't take their side!" said Falco, pointing upwards in reference to where Wario poked his head.

"I'm not, I'm just stating that if there is truth behind their rewards system, we can understand why he granted us 3 blankets," explained Marth.

"There is no truth whatsoever! As far as I'm concerned, Wario and Dedede kidnapped us and are working us to the bone for power!" said Falco. "I bet Wolf is working with them…"

"Falco, it's too early to tell what their _real_ intentions are. Tomorrow, why don't you work slowly and see what happens? Maybe you'll get dumped and we'll all be a bit happier," Marth smiled.

"Watch it, prince of Persia, or I'll blast you out of here right now!" snapped Falco, twirling his blaster.

"Stop it!" commanded Mario, putting his hand out. No one listened.

"Last time I checked, I was doing better than you in the tournament," taunted Marth.

"Because you faced weaklings like Jigglypuff and Yoshi!" argued Falco.

"Hey…Yoshi's tough," Marth informed him. "And either way, who have you fought that is so high and mighty?"

Donkey Kong slammed the ground to silence them, becoming angry that they were fighting. The two glared at one another with rage. Suddenly, the ceiling opened and, as always, Wario appeared.

"What's happening here?" he asked.

"Falco is being arrogant," said Marth wisely.

"Marth is insulting Mario!" Falco insisted.

"Do you feel that you cannot function in the same area?" asked Wario.

"Not with his need to get the last word in," answered Marth.

"Hey! I do not need to get the last word in, you stupid—"

"STOP! There is but one way for this to end," with that, Wario closed the ceiling cover.

"What do you think he is planning on doing?" asked Falco. Marth began to answer, but was stopped by a sudden flash of bright light.

* * *

The cold wind whipped their clothes around, biting at their faces. Mario held tight to his hat. He looked around. He was next to DK, who was looking forward. Mario looked in the direction that DK was looking at. All he saw was the horizon…

_He was on top of the ship!_

He looked around and saw there were other people standing around – all the smashers had been warped to the top of the ship!

"Mario!"

Mario looked where the familiar voice came from. Peach was waving to him, along with Luigi and Fox. He waved back.

"I'm-a coming, Peach!" he started to run at them, when suddenly, the middle of the ship started to open. He nearly fell in, but Donkey Kong grabbed him by the back of the neck. The whole middle of the ship was gone. Suddenly, a large platform rose up. It was large, but small enough so that it was quite a jump from the sides of the ship (where everybody was) to the platform itself. On that platform were 3 figures – Marth, Wario, and Falco.

"Welcome all!" Wario shouted over the wind. "We have had a dispute and I decided now would be a fine time to show you happens when you are having trouble with another! You will duel here, on top of the ship, for all to see. The winner will be rewarded and the loser will be punished. Both parties are ready to fight. Let us begin!"

Falco and Marth, both clearly nervous, dashed at one another.

_This will be over soon, _thought Falco, _and no one will get hurt._

_I don't want to do this, _Marth said to himself, _but it's too late to turn back._

Despite their thoughts, both fought as hard as they could, trying to end it fast. However, it was a very even match, and, because of this, their best efforts only magnified the situation and made the match last even longer. Marth's blade slashed Falco multiple times, but Falco always retaliated fiercely. The battle soon became a battle of their foolish pride.

Mario snuck in between people, trying to not get caught by Wario. He would run from one group to another, stay there for a bit, and then do it again. He had finally gotten to the other side, where Peach, Luigi, and Fox were waiting.

"Mario!" said Peach with a smile.

"We're going to get out of here. Fox, run over to that group and tell them to scramble up. Let's cause some confusion. Make sure we are not caught by Wario," instructed Mario. Fox understood and, once Wario was deep into the fight, darted to the group next to them and explained. Understanding, they sent Sonic, their fastest, to Samus's group, where Zelda quickly became Shiek and dashed to the next group. Things were getting mixed up, and Wario hadn't noticed anything. People were talking and laughing at their achievement when suddenly it all stopped.

Marth was sent flying. He went off of the platform, over the trench in between where the smashers were standing and where the fight was happening, and stumbled onto the edge of the ship, nearly rolling off. Everyone gasped.

"Mario!" yelled Falco. Mario turned around to see the bird jumping from the platform. Mario ran over. Falco used Fire Bird, but it wasn't enough. Mario grabbed his hand to keep him from falling. Falco ran over to Marth.

"Good hit," commented Marth. Falco looked below and saw that if Marth were to fall, he would fall onto a part of the ship that jutted out, right next to a door – it looked almost like a balcony. Falco could have his cake and eat it too! He slowly put his foot in Marth's face and was ready to kick him off when—

"NO!" Marth saw it coming. He knew Falco hated him and had to get rid of the bird before Falco killed him. Marth grabbed Falco's foot and suddenly whirled Falco down. Falco plummeted, off the ship, screaming as he fell. Marth then saw his mistake – Falco was planning to hit Marth onto the balcony, not kill him! He killed Falco!

"W-W-W-W-W-W-WAAAAAAAAAAH!" cried Wario. He farted at an angle that threw himself over the trench between the platform and the rest of the ship. "Y-y-y-y-y-you k-k-k-k-k-killed h-h-h-h-him!"

Marth was completely speechless. What had he done? "Y-you're coming with me!" said Wario. He grabbed Marth and threw him into the trench between the platform and the rest of the ship. He then hit a button and the other smashers were warped away.

* * *

Had Mario really seen that? He wanted to sleep…now there were enough blankets, after all. He looked for DK. No, DK wasn't there. He then remembered – he had slipped into Peach and Luigi's group!

"Mario, we're all together again!" said Luigi. The third-wheel feeling began to dig into him as Mario and Peach looked at each other.

"Yes. It's been too long," said Peach, hugging the red plumber.

"Mario, won't Wario notice that you're with us?" asked Luigi.

"I don't think he'll care considering he just witnessed a death," answered Mario. "I feel like he has bigger things to deal with,"

"Hm, that makes sense," said Luigi. Luigi sat on one of the blankets they had been granted.

"Ah, you guys got blankets, too?" asked Mario. Luigi nodded.

"Here," he brought two over for them. Peach thanked him and the couple lay down. Holding hands, they slowly were able to sleep – still remembering Falco's horrible final scream.

* * *

"I can't believe it," Fox kicked the wall. Wolf stayed silent with his arms folded. Despite the fact that neither Fox nor Falco were ever friendly with him, he still felt despair. Seeing his rival so defeated would usually give him happiness, but now it just brought him sadness. Mr. Game & Watch stayed silent in the corner. He could do very little, as he was unable to speak, and so he just sat on a blanket watching. Fox kicked the wall again, fighting tears. Falco wasn't always what you'd call loyal, and he'd mouth off all he wanted – but he was one of Star Fox's best pilots and a good friend to McCloud himself. Seeing him defeated wasn't easy to handle. Only one thing would get him over this.

And that was Marth's death.

* * *

"That's ridiculous!" replied Bowser. "You KILLED Falco!"

"It...it was in self defense..." said Marth quietly, as he had been repeating over and over.

Bowser sighed. "Put him in his room. We don't have to punish him - I'm sure the smashers will do everything for us,"

"But sir," started Wario. "This was never what we intended!"

"Silence! Do not forget that we are not the only ones here! We shall speak of this once Sir Marth is in his room," said Bowser. "Ganondorf, Dedede, and I will be waiting here. Now go!"

Wario did as he was told, taking Marth back to his room. Marth looked around the ship, trying to get a feel for it - he knew that he'd have to be the hero here if he was to ever receive the acceptance of the other smashers.

* * *

He had stopped shouting a while ago. His eyes were closed and his hands across his chest. Falco accepted death as coolly as he had lived. It was over for him, there was nothing he could do to change that. Suddenly, he was slammed in the back by something – but he was still in the air. He looked down and noticed he was on some sort of yellow star, hurtling back up to the ship. He tried to yell a question but could not be heard over the rapid wind. If he could ask one question at that time, it would've been: Who had saved him?


	5. Mending Hurt Hearts

"Wake up, everyone!" called Wario. Just like his old room, Mario's new room had a compartment in the ceiling that Wario could poke his head through. "We're getting started bright and early today! Proceed to the incinerator room!"

The door opened. The Mario Bros. and their princess proceeded into the room. The moldy Mushroom tubs had been replenished with plenty of old 'shrooms to shovel into the incinerators, which had their counters reset. The door on the other side of the room opened and in walked Samus, Yoshi, Lucario, and Sonic. Mario and Sonic winked to each other, both part of the mix up. Wario walked in.

"You two groups will work with each other today. We'll be – hey!" he said. "Get back to your proper groups! I don't want to have to deal with this!"

"Make us," taunted Sonic bravely. Wario turned to him, enraged, but soon calmed down.

"Aw, fine! You guys can stay…" he said. "This ain't the first mix up I've had to deal with today…" he continued to grumble to himself after firing up the incinerators and leaving. After doing so, the shoveling commenced.

"Do you think we should speed up and hope for a reward?" asked Luigi. He looked over to Samus, who was shoveling away very quickly. Sonic seemed to be trying to top her. Sonic, being the captain of speed, knew his pride was at stake. Samus noticed, wondering what he was trying to do. Peach was shoveling in 'shrooms at about half the pace that Samus and Sonic were. Lucario and Mario went their slow, protesting pace. Yoshi was going at a pretty normal pace, so Luigi decided to do so, as well. They made small talk as they shoveled. However, Sonic said something quite deep…for him, anyway.

"Um, guys?" he said. No one turned, but they were all listening. "Does anybody else feel like…yesterday just didn't happen? Like Falco isn't dead after all, and he'll come back soon?"

Mario stopped shoveling and turned to him. "I…I know what you mean. I somewhat feel that way, too. I mean, when I beat Bowser, he always comes back! Now if only Falco were the same…"

"Why would Marth throw him off the edge like that!" said Peach angrily.

"Hey, Falco was about ready to kill him, if you don't remember," Samus reminded them.

"What if…he wasn't?" asked Luigi. Everyone turned to the green plumber. "I mean, what if he was helping Marth up, but Marth assumed Falco was going to kill him…"

"Come to think of it, I don't think Falco would ever try to kill someone like that…" agreed Peach. "Marth must have known that! Come on, we're all friends here, aren't we?"

"What about Dedede and Wario?" asked Samus. "We thought they were our friends, too. Come to think of it, I didn't see Bowser or Ganondorf yesterday either…"

"True," said Mario. "But Falco isn't-a like them. I saw their fight that led up to the duel, and Falco didn't want to kill Marth. He was just defending me,"

Suddenly, the door opened. Wario walked in. "Too much talking, not enough working!"

"Wario, why are you doing this?" asked Luigi. "Please, answer us! You haven't been a villain for a long time!"

"I already explained this to some of you. It's called revenge, greenie!" Wario explained. He then went behind each incinerator. "Samus and Sonic, you guys may go back to your room. Food is waiting. The rest of you better get going,"

Samus and Sonic decided to go. When they got there, they noticed there was more food than yesterday. The cover in their ceiling opened and there was Wario, who had somehow gotten from one place to another in almost no time.

"As a reward for your excellent performance, here are two nice chairs," Wario presented, letting down carefully two hard-backed chairs. They hit the floor with a thud. Samus and Sonic each plopped themselves down and took some food. "Keep up the great work!"

After he left, Sonic smiled. "You know, until we manage to take these guys over, this could be a pleasing experience,"

Samus nodded. "I suppose so,"

"Samus?" asked Sonic. She turned. "Do you think Marth killed Falco?"

Samus thought for a while before answering. "In self defense," she said simply. Sonic nodded. "I never knew you could be so emotional,"

"Huh? Me? Emotional? Usually when people think of me that word is at the bottom of the list!" he laughed.

"Hmph. I wouldn't say you're as soft as Sandbag, but you're not as hard as Bowser's shell, either," said Samus.

"Thanks!" Sonic hid his face, as he was blushing. This girl understood him like no other. How could she tell so much about him that nobody else had ever been able to?

* * *

"Has anybody else noticed…" said Popo. "That Meta Knight isn't here?"

"Yes," replied everybody in the room. Since Meta Knight was gone, it was just the Ice Climbers and Olimar in their room. Ike, Pit, and Kirby joined them for the work that day. Now that they had messed things up and two people were missing, the groups were quite uneven. The five continued shoveling mushrooms.

"I wonder where he went," Popo continued. "Could he have escaped?"

"That's doubtful," objected Ike. "Although, he IS Meta Knight…"

"He probably could find a way out," said Olimar. "Anything is possible with him,"

"It seems so," agreed Nana.

"Speaking from personal experience, his wings could have allowed him to slip off the ship last night. Of course, his ship is down, so who knows how he survived…" said Pit. A door opened and Wario came in, stopping the chatter.

"Just here to check. Ike, 80 more to go. You can do it, musclehead! Eskimo twins need another 100. Ollie, 110 more. Pit, you're at 300, so 100 more will be needed. Kirbster, you got another 130 more before you're allowed out," he informed. Kirby was behind because he had tried to inhale a Mushroom to become Mold Kirby, but it only made him sick and slowed his pace. Wario then trotted on out. Ike kept going quickly, enjoying the lead.

"Eskimo twins? Who does he think he is? We look nothing alike!" said Popo. He continued to shovel with Nana's assistance.

"Do you think Meta Knight will return?" asked Olimar to no one in particular.

"Definitely. He wouldn't just leave us here!" said Nana.

"He might…yes. I think so," Pit decided.

"I'm not too sure," said Ike. "I've learned to trust people over the years, but Meta Knight has always been shady,"

"No!" said Kirby, one of the few English words he just happened to be able to say.

"I think Kirby has faith in Meta Knight," suggested Popo. Kirby nodded.

Ike groaned. "Maybe he will come back. But if I were you, I wouldn't get my hopes up," he shoveled another 5 mushrooms into the incinerator and checked the back for himself. "27 more,"

"Until then, what do you think we should do? We can't stay here forever," said Olimar.

"I feel that we should work hard and make our temporary stay as comfortable as possible. If I find a way out, I'll make sure we all use it," Ike spoke simply. Everybody stared at him. He just realized what he had done.

He was the leader of a new crew.

* * *

Fox and Wolf worked silently, as Mr. Game & Watch blipped every now and again to dump the Mushrooms he had. Their work day had just started, and they were the only ones in the room at the moment. The door opened with Wario leading a couple of fighters.

"Here you are. Today you're working with Donkey Kong and—"

"Marth!" yelled both Fox and Wolf, causing Mr. G&A to turn.

Donkey Kong got in front of Marth as Fox took out his blaster.

"Move, Donkey Kong. This isn't your fight!" cautioned Fox. "I won't hold back!"

"I have your back," came Wolf, bringing his blaster out as well. Fox, puzzled, looked at him. "Think of me as…Falco's temporary replacement,"

The death of a friend brings an enemy to the other side? Fox could not understand what Wolf was trying to do. Would Wolf attempt to win his trust while he was most sensitive? Fox wouldn't let that happen. "You stay out of it, too, Wolf!" he snapped.

Wolf was taken aback. Did Fox not trust him? He truly was trying to help…how could he prove that?

"Enough! Marth has been suspended from dueling, so challenges will not be permitted!" said Wario, jumping between the two parties. Without a grunt, DK went to a tub of mushrooms and began to shovel. Fox and Wolf returned to their posts, and Marth began his work, as well.

_Star Wolf…so cunning and full of such hatred. Has he no pride?_

_Why would Fox snap at me like that? I wasn't going to stab him in the back…who does he think I am?_

_I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I can say it in my head, so why not out loud?_

_Bananas…bananas…mmmm…bananas…bananas…Pauline…bananas…

* * *

_

Being the largest group, Pokémon Trainer, Lucas, Ness, Jigglypuff, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard worked with no other group. However, their work was finished the fastest, with Charizard finishing first and then helping the others. Lucas and Ness's PSI powers aided them in working greatly. When they got tired, they could put the shovel down and telepathically move Mushrooms into the incinerators. It went slower, but their arms got a well deserved break.

"Ahem…" began the trainer uneasily. "So, what do you two think of Falco?"

There was a silence. "What do you mean?" Ness finally asked.

"Is he really gone, do you think? Or will he return, somehow having called his ship, completely fine?" asked the trainer. Ness put his shovel down.

"I wouldn't rule the possibility out…" he said. "We've seen crazy stuff so far, why would it stop now?"

The trainer laughed. "That's true. What do you think, Lucas?" he asked.

Lucas looked up. He had beaten the trainer the round before the abduction. And the trainer wasn't angry at him? He wouldn't want to kill him, as Marth had done to Falco? "I…I'm not sure. I just feel that we sh-should forgive Marth. Forgiveness is very important! VERY!"

The trainer and Ness stared at Lucas blankly. Had he been too obvious? "Um…I suppose it is," replied the trainer, attempting to be nice.

"I agree," said Ness. "If we're going to beat the guys who trapped us here, then we must come together,"

"Yeah! You guys will help us, won't you?" the trainer asked the Pokémon. They all replied heartily, with stomping, cheering, and yelling of their own name.

"After last night, do we have any idea of who we're up against?" asked Ness.

"Well, I saw Captain Falcon, which is funny, since I thought he'd be a bad guy. He horrifies me!" admitted Lucas.

"I didn't see Bowser," noted the trainer, thinking about whom else wasn't there.

"I noticed that R.O.B. wasn't there. What do you think they did with him?" asked Ness, starting to throw 'shrooms into the incinerator via telekinesis.

"Who knows? I hope he's alright…" the trainer said quietly. The rest of the work day went on in silence.

* * *

The second largest group of Link, Snake, Diddy Kong, Toon Link, Zelda, and Captain Falcon also worked alone. Link had expressed open disgust with Falco, wishing no harm to come of Marth.

"Falco was going to kill him. He got what was coming!" Link said angrily as he shoveled in Mushrooms. "Yes, I miss Falco, but it was his fault!"

"As true as that is, you can't completely clear Marth's name," objected Snake. "I was right there, behind Falco, when it happened,"

"You?" asked Zelda.

Snake nodded. "Perhaps you heard a scream of 'No!'. That was me, out of shock,"

"I thought that was Falco!" said Falcon, shocked.

"Nope. I watched from right behind Falco…and before he started to push Marth down, he looked at something," Snake informed them. Not one of them was shoveling at this point. "There was…a small part of the ship that, had Falco pushed Marth, Marth would have fallen onto. _Falco wasn't going to kill Marth_!"

The room gasped. "So Marth killed Falco…without a reason?" asked Zelda.

"I saw his eyes after the incident. Believe me, he saw the balcony – but by then it was too late," explained Snake.

"N-no way…" Falcon put his shovel down. "So Falco died…for nothing! Marth is a murderer!"

"It isn't his fault. I just explained that Marth didn't see the balcony until—"

"He jumped to conclusions and now Falco's dead!" Falcon punched the wall. "It's completely his fault!"

"Marth killed F-Falco for no reason?" asked Toon Link worriedly.

"Falcon! Now you have Toon Link upset!" Zelda hit him on the arm. He didn't flinch.

"You know what! I've decided to 'accidentally' kill Marth!" Falcon exclaimed suddenly.

"Why are you defending Falco? You guys weren't exactly best friends…" noted Snake.

"That doesn't matter! The 35 of us…we…we're the Smashers! Losing one of us…how are you guys able to live with yourselves, knowing your d-defending the killer!" Falcon was getting more emotional than anyone ever thought he could.

"Pull yourself together!" said Link. He went to Falcon. "None of us are fine with this!"

"Yeah, have you noticed how pissed Link has been acting?" asked Snake with a chuckle. Zelda hit him on the arm, too. "And apparently Zelda likes to hit to get over death. Toon Link hasn't been his usual self, nor has Diddy,"

Falcon looked to him. "What about you? You're fine!"

Snake frowned and sighed. "Are you sure?" he asked. Falcon really looked at him and noticed Snake looked tired. His posture was poor, there were bags under his eyes, and his pace of scooping in Mushrooms was slower than anyone else. "I couldn't sleep last night. Just because I deal with death a lot doesn't mean I'm alright with it,"

The group was silent as Falcon let Snake's words sink in. "Alright…let's just get back to work," Link patted Falcon on the back and they continued in silence.

* * *

Yep, I'm a fan of Sonamus. For a good story about it that actually inspired this story, read Fast Love by Coli Chibi!

Ike always seemed like the leader type to me.

Fox's emotions getting the better of him? Not something you see every day. Of course, neither is Wolf being kind to Fox.

I never played Mother 3, but Lucas seemed quite unsure of himself in Brawl, so I made that a trait of his for this fan fic.

To anyone who doesn't like it, sorry about making Falcon the emotional one. It was a bit of a stretch, I know. But I think it shows the impact of Falco's death well.

...assuming he is dead.


	6. Old Friends and Old Enemies

It had been 3 days since Falco's death. Since then, little had changed. Each day they would work, get rewarded, and sleep. By then, Samus and Sonic had managed to rack up quite a bit for themselves. They had 4 chairs, a rug, 2 blow-up mattresses, 4 blankets, and a small lamp. Yoshi was very happy with the conditions, and Lucario, though remaining emotionless, preferred meditating on a blanket than just the floor. For Mario, Luigi, and Peach, however, things were different. Mario still hadn't been broken, and, paired with Peach's lack of arm strength, they only had a carpet, 4 blankets, and one hard-backed chair. While Luigi didn't say anything, it was clear he disliked the conditions they were in. Peach also somewhat wished that Mario would work harder. But Mario was immovable. Wario's speeches did not hurt him at all.

Fox's group was doing well, Wario bribing them to not kill Marth with some extra furnishings, including a small plant. The Pokémon Trainer and his group always finished quickly, so they had 3 blow-up mattresses, a couple of chairs, and extra food. The Ice Climbers and Olimar had 2 chairs, 2 blankets, and a rug. Ike, Kirby, and Pit managed to go fast enough to earn a 3 blow-up mattresses and some extra blankets. Link and his group had 3 blow-up mattresses, a couple of chairs, and a rug. After finishing work that day, the groups returned to their now furnished rooms, some happier than others.

Samus and Sonic had bonded lately. Samus was becoming more open to him and less of her usual self. Both of them talked and laughed with each other more. As they sat there, Yoshi taking a nap and Lucario meditating, Wario popped his head through the ceiling.

"Ms. Aran," he greeted. "I'm honored to say that you have earned the privilege of having dinner with us tonight. We knew that you, the independent bounty hunter, would definitely understand. Would you like to join us?"

Sonic looked at her. "You're not gonna…" he began. Samus stood up on a chair and jumped upwards. Wario grabbed her and pulled her with him. Sonic gasped. Samus gave him one last sorrowful look before Wario closed the ceiling. "She…she…" he ran his fingers through his quills, unbelieving. Lucario opened his eyes and Yoshi sat up. "She went with Wario! She's against us!"

Yoshi gasped. Lucario, too, looked shocked. No one thought that Samus would truly betray them, even after Falco's comment that first day. Yoshi angrily grabbed the chair with his tongue. He spat it out at the ceiling door that Wario popped in and out of. It broke.

"Y-Yoshi!" gasped Sonic. Yoshi continued to push a chair into the middle of the room. He then leaped off of it and managed to wriggle himself through the hole. Sonic looked at Lucario, bewildered. Lucario walked slowly over, climbed onto the chair, and hopped up. Yoshi grabbed him and brought him up. Yoshi then waved, signaling Sonic to come with them. Sonic happily bounded upwards and grabbed Yoshi. Yoshi pulled him up and they were finally out of their room!

* * *

"Once again, thanks. I owe you my life…literally,"

"It was no problem. I knew I'd need a partner anyway,"

"Yeah, this will be much easier with two people,"

"Ah, here is that balcony. Looks like this did end up helping you,"

"Yeah. So, now what?"

"We get Wario's attention. You punch the door and I'll tap it with my blade. He'll come eventually,"

"Alright. Let's do it!"

* * *

"Hm? What was that?" asked Samus.

"I'll check it out. Go that way, the dining room is there," instructed Wario. He made sure she walked through the door before investigating the peculiar tapping noise. He rounded a corner and saw something was tapping at one of the doors. He looked through the small window and saw…

"F-FALCO!" he exclaimed, tearing open the door. "Y-you're supposed to be dead!"

"…Sorry, Wario," replied Falco. "But I'm not the dead one,"

"What!" snapped Wario. Meta Knight jumped up from behind Falco and slashed Wario in the nose. Falco then dove at him, smacking Wario backwards. "Bwaaah!" Wario suddenly took out a button of some sort and slammed down on it. Above them a noise was heard.

"What the…impossible!" cried Meta Knight. The ceiling above them opened and tons of Primids poured out.

"Primids!" cried Falco, shocked. Not even Meta Knight had seen this coming. The Primids poured at them. Meta Knight attempted to slash them away and Falco kicked and punched speedily, but it was useless. As the Primids held the two smashers down, Wario caught a Dark Cannon that came down the ceiling with the Primids. He aimed it and cackled. Falco closed his eyes…and it was over. Meta Knight struggled.

"I didn't see anything like this coming…" he admitted. "Well done!" he shouted as he was turned into a trophy. Wario then took out a whistle and blew it. He pointed upwards and the Primids listened to him, jumping back up there. Wario chucked the Dark Cannon up with them, then hit the button again, closing the ceiling. He grabbed his two prizes and laughed. He decided to store them quickly so Samus wouldn't become suspicious of him. However, he heard a voice around the corner.

"Where do you think she went?" asked Sonic. Wario gasped. How did they get out? If Sonic and whoever he was with saw him, they'd ambush him. He waddled off in a different direction, hoping he'd be able to lose them.

Yoshi shrugged his shoulders. "Might as well go this way," said Sonic, starting in a direction. The ship was rather dark and grey, but it had some lights. The walls were bare. Sonic continued walking until he tripped on something. On the ground was a small handle. Sonic thought, and then knew precisely what it was that he had found. He opened it up.

"What the – Sonic!" said Snake unbelievingly. They were expecting Wario to pop his head through the hole as always, but this time it was the blue hedgehog himself, along with Yoshi and Lucario.

"Come on up, everyone! We're going to get out of here!" Sonic smiled. Link stacked the chairs to help. He then helped toss Toon Link upward. Sonic caught him and brought him up. Zelda turned into Shiek and independently hopped up, managing to grab the edge and make it through. Diddy Kong used his Barrel Rockets to propel himself up and made it through with the help of Sonic. Captain Falcon managed to bound upwards and grabbed the edge, then make it through. Snake jumped up and used his Cypher to bring him the rest of the way. Link was last, and used the Clawshot to make it up. Sonic explained that they were looking for Samus.

"She agreed to go!" asked Snake. Sonic nodded.

"She isn't against us though…I…I have faith in her!" exclaimed Sonic. They continued to find another handle on the ground. Sonic looked at the others and shrugged. He opened it and found the Mario Bros.!

"What is it-a now, Wario?" asked Mario, looking up. "S-S-S-S-SONIC!"

"Sonic?" asked Luigi and Peach in unison, looking up. Sonic explained everything to them and helped them up. This continued throughout the other 5 rooms as well, and soon, all the smashers, save Falco, Meta Knight, Samus, Wario, Dedede, Bowser, Ganondorf, and R.O.B., were reunited.

"Alright, alright, let's get under control!" called Mario. "We need a plan if we're going to beat these guys!"

Wario was sweating. They had all gotten out. He had no choice. First, however, he had to inform the others.

* * *

Samus ate slowly. She was quite uncomfortable. Around her were her captors, feasting away, while her friends were almost starving. The large room had a long dining table and was lit by candles. There had been many periods of silence, but this one was the longest. Ganondorf broke it finally.

"Samus, would you be interested in joining us?" he asked. Samus was shocked. "We know you're not a villain, but you're the only representative from your series. It's not like you have many friends,"

Samus wanted to object. Mario, Peach, Yoshi…Sonic…they were her friends, weren't they? Then again, joining the enemy may be to her, and eventually their, advantage…

"I will join on one condition," she spoke. Ganondorf, Dedede, and Bowser looked at her, awaiting her wish. "If you tell me why this is all happening. Wario swears this is about revenge, but a blind man could see through that lie,"

Ganondorf sighed and looked to Bowser. Bowser shook his head. "I'm sorry. But you can only be told if you join us first,"

"You would've said that no matter what my condition was, wouldn't you have!" she suddenly stood up. She had no idea why she was so angry at them for this. Suddenly, the door opened and Wario walked in.

"Erm, we have an issue," he said unsteadily. Ganondorf waved him over. Wario toddled over and whispered into his ear.

"All of them!" he asked. Wario shushed him.

"Y-yes," Wario replied. Dedede, Bowser, and Samus all wished to know what it was that they were talking about.

Wario whispered something else into his ear. "I suppose you will have to. Go," commanded the warlock. Wario did as he was told and walked out silently.

"What was that?" asked Dedede.

"I'll tell…if Samus agrees to join us," replied Ganondorf. The table turned to the warrior. She uncomfortably poked her fork into her veal.

"I…I…" she had no idea what to say. If she agreed to join them, she would lose the trust of her companions. However, all the questions she had asked would have been answered. When she heard that she could gain power on the first day she had promised herself that she would be in this for her and no one else…but then Sonic opened her up…

BAM!

"What was that noise!" cried Bowser. He stood up.

"It came from just outside!" exclaimed Dedede, grabbing his hammer.

* * *

"Damn Primids!" shouted Snake, detonating another C4. It exploded with a BAM. He kicked and punched, but there were so many of the horrible things. Wario was commanding them, hopping around with glee at his triumph. Mario tried to keep them away from him and Peach, but there were too many and they flooded between the lovers.

"M-Mario!" cried Peach, grasping for his hand. "Move it! Hee-ya!" Peach, with a sudden burst of ambition, used Peach Bomber, knocking some Primids away. Mario kicked away a few and tried to grab Peach, but more Primids ran between them.

"How did they get all of these Primids!" shouted Captain Falcon.

"Take them back to their rooms! I hope you are all ready for great punishment!" exclaimed Wario. "Hold on," he instructed to the Primids holding Yoshi, Sonic, and Lucario.

"N-no! Leave us alone!" shouted Sonic.

"Sorry about this, but I can't have you 3 wandering around my ship," Wario got his Dark Cannon ready. It charged up and blasted.

"Nooooooooo!"

* * *

"Sonic!" exclaimed Samus suddenly. The others from the table, still shocked from the bang sound they heard, jumped.

"What is it!" asked Bowser.

"I…I think I just heard Sonic scream!" said Samus worriedly.

"Why do you care so much?" asked Ganondorf. Samus was silent. "…perhaps we cannot use you," Samus remained silent. The door opened suddenly, and Wario came in, 3 trophies with him.

"Lucario, Yoshi, Sonic," he stated, throwing each down as he said their name. Samus gasped.

"Sonic!" she ran to the frozen hedgehog.

"Stop her!" demanded Ganondorf. "We cannot use her,"

Wario nodded to show he understood. He aimed his cannon and blasted. Samus didn't see that he had the cannon – but by the time she noticed, it was too late.

* * *

"S-so many Primids…" said Mario, shortly after being tossed back into his room forcefully. He wiped sweat from his brow, after fighting as hard as they could.

"And I-a thought they were wiped out!" said Luigi, rubbing his head. He had taken a solid fall.

"Well, there goes any hope of escape now," sighed Mario. Peach remained silent, thinking of the others and hoping they were alright. "Tomorrow they'll probably dump us. We're doomed,"

"N-no! I don't want this to happen!" Peach began to cry. "I want Falco to come back, I want Wario to be nice again, I want the Primids gone!"

"Peach…" said Mario, putting his arm around her.

"It will be okay," said Luigi calmly. "We've gotten out of worse,"

Peach smiled a bit, but that got Mario thinking. Had they ever gotten out of worse? Had they ever even been IN worse?

* * *

"We can't keep them all like this!" barked Bowser.

"Look, just until the Chaos Barrier isn't as close as it can be to breaking. We don't want _him _returning," replied Ganondorf, throwing Falco and Meta Knight, both trophies, into a cell with the others.

"It doesn't have to be like this!" exclaimed Bowser.

Ganondorf sighed. "Dedede, knock some sense into him, please,"

"Bowser, you know we have no choice. It was Wario's idea to trophify them, and I remember you were the fondest of it," said Dedede calmly.

"But I meant 1 or 2 of them, not 6!" objected Bowser. Dedede sighed.

"There is nothing we can do, Bowser!" exclaimed Ganondorf. "You know that!"

"…you're right. I just wish it didn't have to be like this," Bowser walked away. "I'm going in for the night,"

"Good night," called Dedede, Wario, and Ganondorf. Bowser waved and went into his room.

"What are my orders for tomorrow?" asked Wario.

"Don't be too harsh on them," instructed Dedede. "I wouldn't give them any more furnishings, but I also wouldn't take any away,"

"And what do we do about the missing group?" asked Wario.

"Just don't talk about them, and everyone should assume that they just aren't working with Sonic's group that day," Dedede told him. Wario nodded to show he understood.

"Night, guys," said Wario, before leaving. He took a deep breath. That was a rough day.

* * *

Author's Notes

What is this mysterious Chaos Barrier? Why is Bowser so flustered over having to trophify his enemies? Is it possible that the villains aren't as villainous as thought? I think I'm pretty good with suspense…read on and review! Thanks!


	7. With Assumptions, Without Answers

-The night before, when Sonic busted everyone out-

"Just take it, please! If I have it, people will get the wrong idea!"

"…alright. But if somebody asks me why I have it, I'm telling the whole truth!"

"Thank you, Olimar. Thank you…thank you…"

"You did kill somebody, but you murdered no one. Remember that,"

"I know…thank you for being so understanding,"

"Here come more Primids. Got your sword out?"

"Yep. Get your Pikmin ready!"

"Alright. Let's go!"

* * *

The door opened without a word from Wario the next day and the smashers, getting used to the routine, marched in. That day, Mario, Luigi, and Peach were working with Ike, Kirby, and Pit. They greeted each other and got right to work quickly.

"Last night went horribly," sighed Pit after 10 minutes of silence.

"You don't-a think that Sonic, Yoshi, and Lucario…" began Luigi.

"No!" said Peach. "They can't be against us. They looked just as shocked as we did when the Primids started pouring down!"

"Speaking of which, how did they find all of those Primids? Weren't they all reduced to shadow bugs after we destroyed Tabuu?" asked Ike. He was met with a confused silence. "I mean, I just don't understand where they all came from. And why are they listening to Wario?"

"That's true. That many Primids wouldn't be easy to salvage, and why would a group that large have Wario at their head?" wondered Pit.

"But what about Sonic, Yoshi, and-a Lucario?" asked Luigi. "Maybe they're all in on it! Samus probably is, too!"

"It's impossible!" exclaimed Peach.

"Look, here's what we know for sure: Samus wasn't present last night. Therefore, where could she have gone?" asked Ike. There was a tense silence. "Let's think: there are 8 rooms, one per group, plus some amount of more rooms where we shovel these mushrooms into the incinerators. Plus, Wario would need a room of some sort, plus somewhere to store all the food and furniture he's giving us, right? Let's also remember Ganondorf, Bowser, and Dedede were also not seen last night. They all need rooms, too,"

"This ship is-a bigger than we thought!" said Mario. "If each of them has one room, plus a storage room for the-a furniture, and if we call the hallway we were in last night a room, that's a total of…18 rooms!"

"Possibly more," added Pit. "They probably have some sort of prison, and storage compartments in the ceiling for the Primids. In addition, there is that room that became the stage for Falco and Marth's match that was inside before!"

Peach gasped. "Samus could have gone any of those places!"

"But let's-a be rational," came Luigi, not wanting to be forgotten. "She wasn't in any of the group rooms, incinerator rooms, nor the hallway. That eliminates quite a few choices. I don't see why she would be in Wario's, Bowser's, Dedede's, or Ganondorf's rooms. So…she was on the platform from Falco and Marth's match?"

"Hold on, there's no way that that is the only option. Think – there are 4 villains. There must be somewhere for them to meet," deduced Ike. Peach nodded.

"Right! And…and a cockspit!" said Peach, proud of herself.

"That's 'cockpit', Princess," corrected Mario.

"Oh…right!" Peach smiled, embarrassed.

"She's right. However, I doubt they'd let Samus in there after only asking her to dinner," replied Pit.

"So we can safely assume it was some sort of meeting room, in which dinner was possible?" asked Ike. They nodded.

"Hmm...there was one door in the hallway I saw while being carried back to my room, quite rudely, I might add," said Peach.

"Oh, yeah, I-a saw that, too," agreed Luigi.

"Perhaps that door leads to all of their rooms, because I didn't see any while being carried to my room," proposed Ike.

"Alright, so let's look at what we know. Perhaps there are 3 floors?" wondered Mario. Pit nodded.

"That makes sense," agreed Pit. "Then, just above us are the hallways, then next to those are Bowser, Dedede, Ganondorf, and Wario?"

"That makes sense. Then, above them is the platform that rose up for Falco and Marth's match, along with Primids being stored in compartments around it," thought Ike.

"And then, finally, we have-a the roof, where the platform rose up to and where Marth and Falco dueled," concluded Luigi. Peach and Kirby watched in awe of the 4, never seeing them use their brains in such a manner.

"Now, let's assume we're right. That means the only place where Wario would have taken Samus would have been where the villains are!" said Pit, sure of himself. The others agreed, nodding their heads.

"I wish we could contact Sonic and the others, to know if Samus ever returned," Peach sighed.

"Well, if we are-a correct, then making our escape should be easy, now that we know what we need to do and where to find our enemies," said Mario happily.

Wario walked in, causing the group to hush immediately. He didn't notice anything and checked all the counters. "What! You guys are barely over 100!" he snapped. "Get moving, or punishment awaits! After last night, I'm ready to just dump you guys!"

Luigi gulped and began shoveling faster than ever. Wario snickered a bit before leaving. The group decided to get to work, for their own sakes.

* * *

Link and his group shoveled away, angry over their defeat the other night. They had only been working for 5 minutes when the door opened and Wario came in.

"Today you'll be working with these two," said Wario. Marth and DK revealed themselves.

"Marth!" the whole group gasped. They hadn't seen him the other night, nor had they worked with him since the incident.

"You killed Falco!" exclaimed Captain Falcon. Wario sighed.

"Please! I had to remove him from a different room because he was fighting," explained Wario. They looked at Marth, who had a bruise on his head. "Marth tried to apologize, but McCloud wouldn't hear it. Game & Watch and I tried to stop Fox, but he knocked both of his down. It was Donkey Kong who finally threw that crazy Fox at the wall, while Wolf held him down. Please…give Marth a break,"

Marth sighed. He looked to the ape who had helped him. DK was his only friend. DK patted him on the back and smiled. Marth looked away and smiled slightly as well. He then looked to the ones in the room. Diddy would certainly forgive him if DK backed him up, but Falcon was clearly enraged. The others varied: Snake emotionless as ever, Zelda shocked, Link looked angry…it was Toon Link, the youngest smasher in the room and the entire tournament, who eventually walked up to him and spoke.

"I forgive you," he said in his tiny voice. It was an emotional moment, seeing the child step into the middle of the room and say a phrase that Fox would have killed him for. Falcon and Link took off their angry faces, and even Snake looked surprised. Wario sniffled and quickly left the room, but the smashers could hear him bawling from the other room. Marth smiled.

"Thank you," replied the blue-haired prince. He looked up at the others. His smile faded as Link and Falcon merely turned and continued shoveling.

"I do, too," said Zelda, stepping forward. Marth thanked her.

"…it wasn't your fault. I…I forgive you. And I'm certain those two idiots will in time!" said Snake, pointing at Falcon and Link. Diddy also hopped up and down and gave two thumbs-up. Marth smiled.

"Thank you all. You are making this much easier for me," he said. "Especially you, Toon Link,"

Toon Link smiled. He then picked up his shovel again and began to throw mushrooms into the incinerator. The door opened and Wario walked in, his eyes red, with a handkerchief in his hand. He put it into his coat.

"You two only have to do 300 today. Consider it a gift," Wario told DK and Marth. The two smiled and thanked him. Wario just nodded and walked out. The shoveling commenced. It was silent for a long time.

"Link," said Zelda quietly. Link turned. She motioned her head in Marth's direction. Link shook his head. Zelda gave him a look. Link just shook his head, refusing to forgive Marth. Zelda finally smacked his arm.

"Yow!" Link yelped. Everyone in the room turned to him. He and Zelda waved politely with big grins on their face. The others shrugged and got back to work. Zelda turned to him and shot him a scary look. Link sighed.

"Marth…"

Marth turned to him. "Yes?"

"…you killed Falco. I'll never be able to get over that. But it wasn't your fault…you couldn't see the balcony that he was clearly trying to hit you onto," started Link.

"Link!" snapped Zelda. She smacked him again. "Yesterday you were completely defending Marth, what's wrong with you!"

"That was before I knew of the balcony! Marth should have figured that Falco would never truly kill him!" shouted Link.

"Yeah! Doesn't Marth trust us!" asked Falcon. Marth stayed silent. "Don't you?"

"…I'm not sure. Why would I trust a group of barbarians like you who won't even forgive me?" asked Marth.

"You're the barbarian, you killed Lombardi!" Falcon slammed his foot.

"Out of self defense! Get it through your thick, racer skull!" commanded Snake.

"Don't speak to Falcon like that! He's been a smasher longer than almost all of the people in this room!" yelled Link.

"Shut up! Nobody cares if you're a veteran or a newcomer! The top 3 of the tier list are all newcomers!" argued Snake.

"Tiers are for queers!"

"Prove it! I was doing better than you in the tournament, wasn't I, number 36?"

"Marth beat Falco!" shouted Link. Snake stopped talking. It was true. Although Falco almost won, Marth had turned the tables at the last second.

"Bah, they're close in the list anyway…" returned Snake weakly.

"In that case, it should have been Falco, hanging off the edge, who managed to end up throwing Marth off!" bellowed Link. His words were truth. Since Falco was just barely higher than Marth on the official tier list, it would have made more sense for Falco to have been the winner of the match by the small amount that had decided the duel in the end.

"…whatever. This isn't a debate about tiers," said Snake. He laughed. "You win, Link, you have proved that tiers aren't always accurate, something that has also been proved by many others…but you haven't proved that Marth doesn't deserve forgiveness,"

Link didn't speak for a while. "…Marth…I'm sorry. You didn't kill Falco…but I needed something…something to blame. I couldn't just think that his death was an accident…there had to be some reason or some evil that depicted why it happened. I chose you…because you were an easy target. I forgive you. Completely,"

"Me too," added Falcon. Zelda sighed contently.

Marth stood there and nodded. "Thank you. But the real evil is the ones who forced us onto this ship in the first place. Let us come together and destroy Wario and his cronies!"

"Yeah!" they all said. DK went over to Diddy and picked him up. The two "ooked" for a while, and then turned to the others.

"Wh-what is it?" asked Zelda. DK and Diddy grabbed a tub of mushrooms and hauled it up. It was clearly very heavy.

"I see what they're doing! Let me help!" Link ran over to assist. Falcon then went over and the four of them dumped it into the incinerator.

"So that's what you were doing! For the past 3 days Donkey Kong has been trying to lift his tub of mushrooms. I thought he had dropped something under it! Thank goodness we found someone who speaks monkey," said Marth with a smile.

"Come on, we'll be done in no time like this!" Falcon exclaimed cheerily, running to the next tub of 'shrooms. With the assistance of Link and the monkeys, they dumped it the entire thing. They found a way to beat the system at last!

* * *

The Ice Climbers and Olimar were working with the Pokémon Trainer, his Pokémon, Lucas, Ness, Pikachu, and Jigglypuff. This made the room quite cramped, and it soon got hot, so talking was at a minimum that day. However, Ness couldn't stay silent. He had to bring up what he was thinking.

"I didn't see Falco last night…" he said quietly. "Maybe he really is dead…"

"No…no way," replied the trainer.

"He must have hit the ground by now," said Olimar. "He either called an Arwing and ditched us or he's…"

"So he's either a jerk or dead! That can't be!" exclaimed Nana.

"There must be something else going on," suggested Popo, trying to calm Nana.

"That's a bit far-fetched, don't you think?" asked Olimar.

"No…in fact, it's the only possibility," said the trainer. The room gasped.

"What?" asked Nana hopefully.

"He always had his Arwing transmitter with him – he wouldn't leave it behind. Falco once told me that he only got rid of his Arwing transmitter when he was going to fight in the tournament. The abduction happened during the first match of the day – Mario vs. Donkey Kong! That means he had the transmitter with him when we were being abducted. He couldn't use it until the night of the duel. Calling it during the battle was impossible, because Marth was constantly slashing at him. There was only one time – after the battle. I bet he was planning to call it, save Marth, and then come back up for us! But then, something unexpected happened. Marth won. Falco, with no choice, called his Arwing to save his life," declared the trainer. Nana and Popo smiled, but their happiness was cut short.

"Impossible," objected Olimar. "Simply impossible,"

"Why!" asked everybody else in the room.

"Because I have the transmitter here, with me," Olimar held up a small object with a button. On the button was the Star Fox logo. The room gasped.

"How!" asked Ness.

"…yesterday. Marth gave it to me," said Olimar. He hung his head. "He had slashed it off of Falco, but kept it to give to him at the end of the match. He had forgotten all about it until a Primid knocked it out of his pocket. So, he saw me, the closest one to him last night, and told me to take it. And so…I…I did. I felt bad for him…I just wanted to help him to forget. But now I see…that this proves only one possibility.

"And that…is Falco's death,"

Nana sniffed. Popo comforted her. The two were inseparable and always there for each other – and Popo knew that Nana needed him now more than ever.

"…he's gone…" said Ness, turning away. "You know, I knew that the answer to my question would hurt me…deep down I knew he was dead the whole time…so why did I pursue it? I…I don't know…"

"The fact is…he's gone," said Olimar. He fought off tears. The room entered another silence, one of many since they had boarded the ship. The door opened and Wario walked in.

"What's happening here? Looks like a funeral!" laughed Wario. No one laughed with him. "Eh?"

"Falco's dead. It's the only possibility," explained Lucas bravely.

"What do you mean?" asked Wario. Olimar held up the Arwing transmitter that would have called Falco's ship. "That…is it…I…I don't think he's really dead, guys!"

"You let him die!" snapped the trainer. Wario swallowed.

"He's definitely not dead…I…I know he isn't," babbled the biker, sweat beginning to form.

"How do you know!" demanded the trainer, enraged. "How can you say that? To cover for your own ass!"

"I can't tell you how I know…but he's alive. I am completely certain," said Wario simply.

"How do you know!" demanded Olimar.

"Please, tell us!" pleaded Lucas. Ness remained silent.

Wario sighed. "I…I just can't…"

"Ah, screw you!" shouted the trainer. Wario silently left the room without checking the counters on the incinerators. The trainer slammed his foot. His Pokémon turned to him to see if they could help. "Next time you see him, you guys can take him down!" Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard cheered, waiting for their next chance to get revenge on the one who caused their trainer so much grief.

* * *

WOOSH.

"Ah…what's happening?" Samus rubbed her head. "You!"

"Hush!" cautioned Bowser. "Listen, this is wrong! We aren't truly evil!"

"Wh-what are you babbling about? Your crony Wario shot me with the Dark Cannon!" Samus spat back.

"And I brought you back to life, didn't I?" Bowser asked rhetorically. Samus stayed silent.  
"Exactly. Listen, what's happening here is complicated…please understand. I can't explain too much or…"

"Or what?" asked Samus.

"I…I just can't! If you agree to join us and stay loyal then perhaps I can-"

"Oh, be quiet! I'll never join you and this sick joke!" replied Samus angrily.

Bowser sighed. "So be it," he brought the Dark Cannon out from behind his back. Samus, behind bars, could do nothing.

"S-S-Soniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiic!"

* * *

Author's Notes

The plot thickens! Isn't it tempting to just scream "HE'S NOT DEAD!" to the Pokémon Trainer and the others? Well, Wario's untrustworthy background is definitely biting him in the butt here.

Have Mario and his group figured out the ship? DK and his pals can now beat the system! And what does Bowser mean by 'we aren't truly evil'?

By the way, I'd love to hear your opinions on Marth's situation. Should the smashers reason with him, or do they have a right to be angry? Next chapter is coming soon!


	8. Ike Leads

3 days had passed since the night when the smashers got out. Through those days the mystery of Samus, Sonic, Lucario, and Yoshi's disappearance had gotten out. Mario hadn't seen them, and neither had any other group he worked with.

"It's official, then," spoke Ike, his group working with the Ice Climbers and Olimar. "They were working with the enemy!"

"Hold on, don't jump to any conclusions!" argued Nana.

"Well, what else do you suggest is possible?" asked Olimar.

"Well…we don't know the whole story!" said Nana.

"But we know enough," replied Olimar simply. "They led us into the trap, Wario didn't tell them about the Primids, and we all got captured. Wario, done with them, probably locked them somewhere,"

"But what possible reason would they have to doing this?" asked Popo.

"To work us harder," came in Pit. "If we fear the possibility of punishment, we will work faster and harder. Eventually they'll tire us out and just kill us all,"

"This is the most devious plan they've ever had!" gasped Popo.

"Or enslave us, or something. I don't think they'd try to actually kill us…" said Ike.

"But why would Samus, Sonic, Lucario, and Yoshi all be against us?" asked Nana.

"Sonic is understandable. He wants revenge for the past, when Mario and Sonic had their rivalry," replied Pit.

"Samus goes it alone. She's not a bad person, just a bit…cold. I doubt she'd truly go through with their plans, but it isn't like she wouldn't consider it," stated Ike.

"Hold on. I'm not sure that you're giving Samus enough credit. She can be very kind," replied Olimar.

"Drastic times call for drastic measures, Olimar. I'm sure Samus wouldn't betray us unless she felt that she was truly in danger. And she is," said Ike. He scooped another batch of mushrooms into the incinerator.

"But we're all in danger! Why would she just leave us? It doesn't make sense!" exclaimed Popo. "Think, Ike! Would you leave us if you could?"

"I'm not Samus, am I?" Ike asked rhetorically.

"I don't care. Would you?" Popo asked again.

"…no. I wouldn't," Ike answered truthfully.

"Then why would Samus?" asked Popo. "Do you really know her?"

"…I suppose not," said Ike. "Do you?"

"…hm, well, no…" replied Popo.

"Well then, I guess we'll have to wait a while before our questions are answered," said Pit, trying to stop the small fight that was starting.

"…I suppose so," said Ike. He remained silent as he continued his work.

"I believe we should try to break out again. These questions need answering, and as long as we are here, they will never be resolved," suggested Olimar. The others turned.

"What if we get caught? Remember what Wario said? He can dump just our room and the ship will be fine!" said Pit.

"But we have to do something!" said Popo.

"I don't want to die, but that's just me," Pit remarked sarcastically.

"Hey!" came Kirby. Everyone looked over to the forgotten pink one. Kirby walked over to Ike and inhaled him. He then spat out the warrior.

"What the hell was that for?" asked Ike, rubbing his head. Kirby now had Ike's blue hair and a headband. Kirby walked over to one of the doors and started slamming it with his blade. The others were puzzled.

"Does he think he can break it on his own?" asked Olimar. Kirby turned around and shook his head. He then waved the others over. They looked at each other and smiled.

"Let's do it!" said Nana cheerily.

Together they slammed at the door. Olimar plucked Pikmin from the floor of the ship shockingly easily. Luckily for them, Purple Pikmin usually came from metal floors, so he got quite a few of them. Nana and Popo's hammers were helpful, bashing on the door together to cause the most damage. Ike and Kirby were quite a duo themselves, both now using powerful blades to make quite a ruckus. Because it was crowded, Pit stayed in the back and shot arrows from behind, helping to make sure the entire door was being bashed.

"What the…?" wondered Wario, hearing the crashing from above Olimar and the Ice Climbers' room. He opened their ceiling, left it open so that he wouldn't be stuck, and went to the door. He opened it cautiously, but wasn't cautious enough.

Possibly accidentally (but probably on purpose) he was slammed and shot by the 6 fighters. He was out in no time. Olimar called his Pikmin off of Wario's downed body and they entered Ike's room.

"Wow…you guys have less than us," Popo teased.

"Look, as long as Wario is down, we have the ship to ourselves!" said Pit happily.

"But the ceiling…" Olimar began. But once he looked up, he saw that the ceiling door was open! "But how do we get up there?"

"Remember the other night?" asked Ike. He grabbed a chair and plopped it under the hole in the ceiling. Kirby aided him, bringing the other one over. Ike stacked it as well. "I still can't make it…"

Kirby, the jumping master, took matters into his own hands. He hopped onto the chairs and floated up, passing the hole in the ceiling.

"Pit, you go next," Ike commanded. Pit nodded and used his wings to propel himself upward. He made it up with Kirby. Pit then held out his arms. Ike jumped up and grabbed the angel.

"I'm going to fall!" exclaimed Pit. Ike was heavy, and with his blade in tow, even heavier. Kirby quickly jumped on Pit's back to keep him safe. Pit struggled, but managed to bring Ike upward.

"Yay!" cheered Nana. She and Popo then jumped upward, using Belay to grab onto Pit and make it. Finally, it was Olimar's turn.

"Ungh…" groaned Wario. Olimar whirled around. He then turned to his friends.

"Go! I'll keep him down so that he can't try anything!" said Olimar bravely.

"He can't get out anyway, right?" asked Popo.

"Not through the ceiling, but he might be able to go through the second door in the Incinerator Room – the one that leads to our room!" said Olimar. "Just go!"

"No, come with us!" said Nana hopefully.

Olimar shook his head. "Good luck, everyone,"

"B-but…" began Nana.

"Leave him," came Ike. "It's not like he'll be in trouble. Wario is someone he can beat,"

"Olimar beat Wario in the tournament, if I recall correctly," Pit agreed. Nana sighed and waved. Olimar waved as well, before looking back and seeing Wario get up. Olimar began attacking harshly as the others left.

"Alright. So we've found our way out. Now what?" asked Popo.

"I feel like we need some sort of leader. Not like a commander, just someone to prioritize what we need to do," suggested Ike. The 4 others turned to him. "…what?"

"Didn't we already decide that? It's you. Anyway, let's…" Pit was cut off.

"Wait, I'm the leader? Are you sure?" asked Ike.

"Yeah, who else? Anyway, maybe we should start with…" began Pit.

"Really?" asked Ike. Pit sighed.

"Yes, Ike," he replied simply. He waited a bit to make sure Ike didn't have any more questions. "Alright. I think we should start by getting the other smashers out. What do you think, Ike?"

"Good idea," replied Ike. "There is always safety in numbers. Kirby, you're with me. We'll go that way. Pit, you stay with Nana and Popo and take the rooms on that side,"

"Okay!" said Kirby. He taunted, causing the loss of his Ike power.

They began to split up when they were stopped. "Wait!" cried Nana.

"Wh-what is it?" asked Ike, startled.

"The people aren't in their rooms. They're working!" said Nana. The room gasped.

"Of course…we should have remembered that!" said Ike. He stamped his foot.

"Maybe we should go back and wait," suggested Popo. "Give them another half hour. We were pretty close to getting done, weren't we?"

"You're not going anywhere," came a voice. They turned to see Ganondorf, arms crossed, angrily looking at them.

"Stay back!" warned Ike, his blade ready. Ganondorf laughed.

"Fool! You forget that an army of Primids awaits you, just above! And in my hand I hold the control to keeping them in or letting them out," laughed Ganondorf, showing the object. "Now then, you can either be good and go back to your rooms, or I can have you brought there with punishment!"

"Wh-what do we do?" asked Popo. Ike thought for a minute before answering.

"Kirby, stay with me! Pit, Ice Climbers, go unlock the other rooms and recruit anyone you find! Go!" commanded Ike suddenly. He then leaped at Ganondorf. He slashed true and Ganondorf, not seeing the sudden blow coming, lost the button. He almost grabbed it, but Kirby swallowed it quickly.

"NO!" shouted the warlock. Enraged, he jumped up and kicked Kirby. Ike slashed him from behind, knocking him into a wall.

Pit split up from the Ice Climbers to move faster. He wrenched open one of the ceiling doors rapidly and yelled inside.

"Quickly! We need your help!" said the angel. Link and his entire group looked up. "Wait, you're ALL already done?"

"We work in a…special way," said Link with a smirk. "Save us the details of how you got out for later! We'll gladly help you. Let's go! Stack those chairs!"

"Waaah!" Kirby slammed into Pit after being sent across the entire hallway by Ganondorf. As Ike and Ganondorf fought, Pit helped Link's group get up. Ganondorf eventually managed to throw Ike down. He ran at Pit.

"Now!" yelled Pit. Link jumped up and Pit grabbed him. Link climbed through the hole and slashed the unsuspecting Ganondorf.

"Gah!" shouted Ganondorf. "Dedede! Get out here!"

Meanwhile, Nana and Popo opened a floor-door as well, but no one was inside.

"I guess no one finished in here yet," said Popo. They continued to the next one. After opening it, they once again discovered no one inside.

"Oh, come on!" said Nana unhappily.

Dedede emerged from the one door of the hallway. "Yikes!" he exclaimed, seeing the smashers attacking Ganondorf. Luckily, no one saw him. He went back into the room quietly.

Ganondorf was being slammed heavily. He knew that soon he'd be downed and become his trophy form. "DEDEDE!" he repeated. "BOWSER! WARIO! WHERE IS EVERYONE?"

"HEE-YA!" Ike slammed the back of Ganondorf's head with his blade, finishing him. Ganondorf was soon completely still, standing on a base.

"Well done," Link commended, one swordsman to another.

"Thank you. You helped as well," replied Ike, shaking Link's hand.

"So, you found a way out?" asked Link.

"You could say that," Ike smirked. He helped Kirby up. "It was actually this little pink guy's idea,"

"I found the Pokémon Trainer, Jigglypuff, Lucas, Ness, and the trainer's Pokemon, Ike," reported Pit. Ike thanked him.

"Ike!" shouted Nana from across the hall. "We opened every door we found! Some rooms were empty, though," Behind her were many smashers.

"Well, who is missing?" asked Ike.

"We found everyone except for the Mario Bros., Princess Peach, and…" Nana sighed. "Samus, Sonic, Yoshi, and Lucario,"

"Are they against us?" asked the Pokémon Trainer.

"We're unsure," answered Ike. "Where are the Mario Bros.?"

"Probably still working, as you should be," said a voice. All the smashers whirled around. King Dedede stood there, grinning. "Will I have to take you back to your rooms?"

"You think you can take us all on?" laughed Snake. "You're surrounded!"

Dedede turned around to see Nana's group behind him. "No matter," he laughed. Suddenly, he brought out a Smash Ball. "I came prepared,"

"No!" exclaimed Nana. Dedede started slamming at it.

"I can't get close!" exclaimed Link. "He'll just hit me with his hammer!"

"Go, Squirtle!" yelled the trainer. Squirtle fired his Water Gun, knocking Dedede back. "Now, Falcon!"

"FALCON KICK!" shouted Captain Falcon with vigor, diving foot first into the Smash Ball. Although it didn't break, it was knocked backwards. Link propelled upwards and slashed it open.

"N-n-n-no! BOWSER!" shouted Dedede. It was too late. Link unleashed his Triforce Slash, causing Dedede great amounts of pain. At the end he became his trophy self, completely defeated.

"Ganondorf, Dedede, and Wario are all down!" exclaimed Popo happily. Suddenly, the door in the hallway opened once again. Bowser came out, laughing heartily.

"Sorry, but this is over. Do you see this? It's called 'the backup button that Dedede forgot to grab'," the Koopa King said mockingly.

"Stop him!" cried Ike. Snake threw a grenade, but it was useless. Bowser slammed on the button and the ceiling compartments opened – and once again, the hundreds of Primids came pouring down, mercilessly raining upon them. While they were weak alone, in such a large group they were nearly impenetrable. Defeating one only led you to another. However, there were clearly fewer than before. Everyone fought as hard as they could, but it was useless. The Primids reanimated Ganondorf and Dedede, showing the true winners of the match.

"AND AS PUNISHMENT!" shouted Bowser over the noise. "IKE'S ROOM CAN EXPECT TO BE DUMPED LATER!"

Ike, Pit, and Kirby gasped. They fought hard, knowing that now their lives were at stake.

"Wait, I have a plan!" said Pit. He guided Ike and Kirby to an open room past theirs. "Remember what Nana said? Some rooms were empty!"

"Excellent plan," commended Ike. "Now our empty room will get dumped and we'll be fine," The Primids pushed them into the closest empty room – which wasn't really their room – and closed the door. Happy with their success, Ike and co. noticed that the room they had found was a _really, really_ nice room.

"The person whose room this was must have been an amazing worker!" said Pit, lying down on one of the blow-up mattresses.

"They even have a plant," noted Ike, pointing to a small potted plant. "I could get used to this,"

Kirby was clearly very happy, bouncing from bed to bed, being careful not to hit Pit.

"Wait a sec…" started Ike. Pit looked over. "If this room is unoccupied, that means it's either the Mario Bros'. or…"

"Samus, Sonic, Yoshi, and Lucario's," finished Pit.

"And judging by the accommodations…" said Ike. "It must be _theirs_,"

"You don't mean the Mario Bros., do you?" asked Pit sarcastically. "We're in Sonic and the others' old room!"

Kirby, shocked, stopped short, landing on his butt instead of his feet as he normally would have.

"I believe so," replied Ike. Kirby continued bouncing around, but he listened closely as well. "And I think I can safely say…they haven't been here for days,"

"What? You're sure about that?" asked Pit. Ike nodded. Kirby, shocked yet again, didn't see where he was going and landed straight on top of Pit's lap. "Augh!" Pit clutched where he had been hit. Ike burst out laughing.

"Pit, I am so sorry," Ike was exploding with laughter, from pure shock along with the hilarity of seeing the pink blob come down onto Pit. "I…I shouldn't laugh!"

Kirby was quite sorry…but that couldn't keep him from laughing. He eventually joined Ike, much to Pit's dismay.

"Come on!" pleaded Pit. "You guys know what it's like to be hit in the…you know…so I don't need you laughing!"

"Sorry, Pit," Ike wiped away a tear from his eye. Kirby frowned.

"It's alright. While I will be in pain all night, it's good to see we can still laugh," Pit smiled.

"What do you mean?" asked Ike.

"Well, through all of this terror and sadness, it eases my mind to see that we can still laugh at purely silly things," said Pit.

"That's true. Still, I don't know if we'd be okay with another death like Falco's. Somebody else falling off the ship would truly hurt us as an entire group," said Ike. Suddenly, Pit's smile was gone. "What, did it start to hurt again?" Ike snickered.

"O-O-Olimar…" said Pit quietly.

"What?" asked Ike, not hearing.

"Olimar! He was in our room with Wario!" exclaimed Pit. Kirby gasped.

Ike's eyes widened in terror. "Oh no!"

The loudspeaker came on. Dedede's voice was heard. "We are about to drop Ike, Pit, and Kirby. May this be an example to all others who dare go against us!"

"NO!" shouted Ike, Pit, and Kirby (who was also able to form the simple word "no")

* * *

"Alright…I made the announcement," reported Dedede.

"Are you ready?" asked Bowser.

"Fine. But use the Dark Bomber first!" cautioned Dedede.

"What does that do again?" Bowser got his fingers ready for button-pushing.

"It makes anyone in that room a trophy. Then at least they won't be dead when they hit the ground," explained Dedede. Bowser nodded.

"Alright. The purple button?" Dedede nodded. Bowser pressed a button that said 'R5' and then the purple button. "Now what?"

"Hit R5 and then the green button with the 'D'," instructed Dedede. Bowser did so and a loud noise was heard. "…you did it,"

Bowser sighed. "I hope we can all come together again after this,"

"You're too soft," stated Ganondorf as he entered the small control room. "Comments like that keep the Chaos Barrier nearly broken,"

"It's just that...they think we betrayed them!" said Bowser.

"We did," replied Ganondorf simply. He left the room. Bowser sighed.

"I'm not a good villain," the Koopa King sat down.

"That's not true. This operation is as cold and heartless as they get," said Dedede. "But if the Chaos Barrier breaks, then we're all done for. Besides, I love seeing you act evil. We all do very well, don't we?"

"We do," laughed Bowser. "And as long as they think we're evil, the Barrier should stay intact,"

"We won't have to do this forever. Just remember that," replied Dedede. Bowser nodded and thanked him.

* * *

-5 minutes earlier-

"We are about to drop Ike, Pit, and Kirby. May this be an example to all others who dare go against us!" said the loudspeaker.

"Wait…this is their room!" exclaimed Wario.

"…you're correct," said Olimar, sitting on the chair that was sitting on Wario.

"We've gotta get out of here!"

"How?"

"You forget – I can open any door in this ship! First, let's head to the Incinerator Room, since it's still open," suggested Wario. Olimar agreed and hopped off the chair, allowing Wario to pick it up, get rid of it, and stand up for the first time in a while.

"Let's move," said the Pikmin leader. The two ran into the Incinerator Room. Suddenly, there was a great flash of light. "Ah! What was that?"

"I don't know," replied Wario honestly. Suddenly, the entire floor, the piece of Final Destination, detached itself from the walls, an ear shattering noise happening because of it. Olimar and Wario watched it fall down, down, down…until it finally seemed to stop with a thud that they could barely hear.

"Oh, Falco could survive that," said Olimar sarcastically.

"…look, he's alive. Don't you believe me?" asked Wario. Olimar thought back to the other day, where Wario continued to insist Falco was living.

"Well, you haven't pushed me off of the ship yet. So I can trust you. And I don't think you're the type of person who would lie about something like that. So…yes. I suppose Falco must be living if you say so," Olimar nodded.

"...thank you, Olimar," said Wario.

"Now, let's go into whosever room that is," Olimar pointed to the other door across the incinerator room.

"Alright, let me just find my card key…" Wario fished around his pockets. His eyes then widened. "MY CARD KEY!"

"What!" exclaimed Olimar. "You lost it?"

"You must have knocked it out of me when you were all beating me to death!" snapped Wario.

"Oh, great! Now what do we do?" asked Olimar.

"We're done! Finished! Cooked!" screamed Wario. He took out a pocket thesaurus. "Through! Had! Done! Doomed!"

"You have a pocket dictionary, but not an extra card-key!" snapped Olimar.

Wario took out a pocket German-to-English dictionary. "Nein,"

"…" Olimar was silent. He would either be stuck in this small space with this very, very annoying person, or he would be dead by jumping off the ship.

Why him?

* * *

Author's Notes

This chapter focused around a set group of characters. Do you like this, or do you prefer it when I have a bit of each group featured? Please review and I will listen to your opinion.

This 'Chaos Barrier' is mentioned again. Is anyone starting to understand its meaning?

Also, poor Pit. XD


	9. A Heroic Attempt

Another plan failed. Link sighed as he got ready for the work that day. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, he told himself. The next breakout would be with him in charge.

"Good morning, Link," said Zelda.

"Good morning," replied Link. "Ready for work today?"

"Of course. It's all I've been doing for the past week," the princess yawned and stretched.

"Ooh-ah," greeted Diddy. Link looked over and smiled. Despite lacking the ability to speak, Diddy was very kind.

"Hello to you too," said Link. Diddy helped himself to a banana from the small stash of food they had been storing.

Snake and Captain Falcon were still snoring in the corner, while Toon Link played with some dice that Wario had given them as a reward for their constant rapidly finished work. Diddy Kong went over to see what Toon Link was doing, giving Link and Zelda some time alone. They sat on a couple of chairs they had earned thanks to what was referred to as "The DK Method" and talked.

"Look," said Link. "Next time we have a breakout, I'm in charge,"

"I have to agree," Zelda nodded. "With Sonic we didn't know what we were doing, and with Ike we managed to force the enemy to show their hand…now you should go in there and finish it out,"

"Thanks, Zelda. It means a lot that you have faith in me," Link smiled. Zelda smiled as well.

"This has been quite an adventure. Usually you're busy saving me, but now we're both trapped," sighed Zelda. Link laughed.

"Well put," said Link. "I'm glad for once I'm not alone!"

"I agree," replied Zelda with a smile.

"You know, I've known you for a long time now…we're sort of like Mario and Peach when you think about it," suggested Link.

"Only a lot better looking," Zelda smirked. Link laughed.

"That's true. And imagine Mario with a sword!" said Link. The image caused Zelda to laugh loudly. Link kept it going. "It would be taller than him!"

Zelda laughed so loudly that it caused Toon Link and Diddy Kong to look over at them. "Sorry!" said Zelda quietly, still giggling. "Thanks, Link. Now they think I'm ridiculous,"

"Come on, we all know that isn't true," Link smiled. Zelda was still laughing a bit from thinking of Mario dragging his sword around in its sheath.

The loudspeaker came on. "Is this on? TESTING! TESTING! 1-2-3!" it said in Bowser's voice. In the background they heard, "It's on, Bowser, just make the announcement!" A pause came, followed by Bowser's voice again. "Um, it's time for work! Get, um, ready?" With that it turned off and a door in their room opened. They went into it and, as always, began shoveling. The Ice Climbers joined them.

"Good morning," greeted Zelda. She then noticed Nana was crying. "Wh-what's going on?"

The whole room looked over to the sad climber. "It's alright, Nana…" Popo said, trying to comfort her.

"What happened?" asked Snake.

"…guys…" said Popo quietly. "There…has been…another death,"

"Another one!" exclaimed Falcon. Toon Link gasped.

"They're going down like flies," said Snake, folding his arms.

Zelda turned to Link. She was afraid he might flip out like before. "But I have a question…" the Hylian warrior spoke. "You say that singularly…but there was more than one death,"

The room gasped. "No, he's right," stated Snake. "Remember yesterday? Ike, Kirby, and Pit should be dead right now,"

"But there was only one death," said Link. The entire room then turned to Popo. "Who?"

Popo paused. "Olimar,"

"Excuse me, you just said something that you really should not have said. WHO exactly died?" asked Link.

"Olimar…Olimar and Wario!" said Popo loudly. The room gasped again.

"Impossible," replied Snake. "We just determined that…"

"Ike, Pit, and Kirby snuck to a different room. I saw them fall into someone else's room. Wario was left in Ike's room with Olimar to guard him. Then, of course, Bowser dumped that room…which means…" Popo was suddenly stopped.

"They're alive!" squealed Nana.

"What!" gasped the entire room. They were completely confused by all that was happening.

"Popo, don't you remember?" asked Nana. "The door next to them that led to the incinerators was open! They must have climbed in there!"

"What? Wait…you're right! And the room next to that one is…" began Popo. The two looked at each other.

"Ours!" the two climbers exclaimed in unison. They turned to Link and the others.

"We'll help you," replied Link. "Let's go,"

Together they picked up the Ice Climbers' tub of mushrooms and dumped it in. They then did everybody else's, with difficulty due to the fact that Donkey Kong was not present.

"Now we just wait for Wario?" asked Zelda.

"Yes," Link replied. Suddenly, the whole room went completely silent. "Oh, no…"

"He's with Olimar!" everyone exclaimed.

"Do you think they'll send someone else?" asked Falcon.

"Of course!" said Zelda. "It isn't like they can leave us in here…"

"Why wouldn't they? After last night when we nearly had them all beaten, I'd kill us all, too," argued Snake. He folded his arms. "Let's be serious. They have given us furnishings, food, and safety. And we continue to try to break out. They can't shut us up with chairs, beds, and carpets anymore, and they know it. So how do they shut us up? With death,"

"N-no!" gasped Zelda.

"But they have no reason to kill all of us!" objected Link. "Ganondorf wants one person dead…and that's me,"

"Don't be ridiculous," replied Snake.

"No. It's true. If I give myself up, you guys will be set free," Link turned away.

"It is not!" exclaimed Nana. "He wants all of us dead! We're going to die together!"

"Stop sounding so peppy," said Popo quietly.

"Link, stop trying to be a hero. The only way we're going to do this is together, as a team!" Snake stamped his foot. Silently, Link walked to one of the doors.

"Popo, Nana, how exactly did you guys get out yesterday?" he asked.

"Um, we made lots of noise and caused Wario to come to us…but Wario isn't here!" replied Popo.

"Hm," Link thought. How could he make his way out without someone else opening a door that he couldn't open?

"Well, we're done with our work for today. Maybe we could signal them or something?" wondered Snake.

"How? There are no cameras…that we know of, anyway," stated Zelda simply.

"…perhaps…" started Link. "Watch out," he instructed. The others moved away from him. He took out a bomb and chucked it an in incinerator.

"YOU MORON!" screamed a voice as a large explosion was heard. The smashers, however, were fine – the incinerator was completely busted. Snake dusted himself off.

"As I was saying…YOU MORON! Are you trying to kill yourself so Ganondorf will let us go!" snapped Snake.

"Not at all. Look," instructed Link. The incinerator was completely busted.

"And?" asked Falcon. He had Toon Link under his arm, where Toon Link had huddled to get away from the explosion.

"Remember what Wario said the first day? We are powering the ship by scooping these mushrooms into the incinerators. If one of these is busted, Bowser and the others will know about," explained Link.

"Yes, but there is one small problem…" Snake began. "YOU COULD BRING DOWN THE ENTIRE SHIP!"

"One incinerator out of the many in this ship won't bring down the ship," argued Link.

"Well, don't do it again, or we might all die!" exclaimed Falcon.

"I won't," Link assured them. Suddenly, the door to the Ice Climbers' room opened.

"What is going on in here?" asked Bowser. In his hands was a Dark Cannon.

"You lugged that thing the whole way down here?" asked Link. Zelda, Diddy, Toon Link, and the Ice Climbers moved back slightly at the sight of the horrifying weapon.

"I'm the strongest brute of them all!" said Bowser with pride. "What is going on here?"

"You don't scare me!" shouted Link, running at Bowser. Bowser charged up the gun, but it was too late. Link slashed him and he fell – the Dark Cannon fell from his hands and fired at Diddy, striking him.

"Tap the base!" commanded Snake, running to assist Link. "Thought you were safe with that cannon, huh?"

Bowser merely roared and threw Link off of him. Snake fired a Remote Missile and it hit Bowser back. The others, having brought back Diddy Kong, emerged into the Ice Climbers' room.

"Stay back!" shouted Bowser. Link slashed at him, but he dodged. He was suddenly smashed from behind. Snake had delivered a nice blow to the back of the neck.

"Where's Falcon?" asked Zelda. She turned backwards and saw him in the incinerator room, grabbing the Dark Cannon. He grabbed it and brought it out. Link, Bowser, and Snake were moving fast, so he'd have to make it a good shot. Bowser whirled around and clawed Snake. Link grabbed Bowser with the Clawshot…Falcon started charging up, hoping Link would hold him long enough…

But Bowser broke free! Link slashed, but Bowser dodged it and grabbed Link with his claw. Falcon couldn't stop the shot…

"Link!" cried Zelda. Link was it by the blast. She turned to Falcon and smacked him.

"I'm sorry!" apologized Falcon. Bowser laughed heartily. Snake suddenly grabbed him from behind.

"N-now, Falcon!" yelled Snake. Falcon nodded and began the slowly charging cannon. Bowser broke away at the last second and threw Snake in front of him.

"No!" yelled Zelda.

Falcon couldn't stop it…a trophy hit the ground.

A trophy…of Bowser.

"…I'm…I'm okay?" asked Snake to no one. He looked over and saw Bowser on the ground.

"Who…?" wondered Zelda. She then looked over and saw Toon Link standing triumphantly.

"I knocked Snake away from Bowser," explained the small, green-clad warrior.

"You may have saved us all!" Zelda exclaimed happily.

Snake laughed. "Thanks," He shook Toon Link's hand. Diddy Kong revived Link. Link shook his head.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Toon Link saved me from your fate," smiled Snake. Link smiled as well.

"Good job," commended Link.

"Thanks!" replied Toon Link happily.

"The ceiling is open!" said Nana happily, remembering to check.

"Alright. Let's get out of here," Snake started to stack things.

"Wait!" halted Popo. Everyone turned to him. He then pointed to the closed door on the other side of the room. "The other incinerator room…the one between ours and Ike's room…that is where Olimar and Wario are trapped,"

The room was silent. Snake was the one to break it. "Only one thing to do. Hold him down, will you?"

"Who?" asked Falcon.

"Bowser, of course. He's the only one who can open that door," Snake explained. "Let's go!"

Link and Falcon looked at each other and shrugged. They then flipped the Koopa King onto his stomach and put their hands across his chest. Snake tapped the base. Bowser was reanimated – and angry.

"Get off!" he growled.

"Not until you tell us how to open that door," replied Snake immediately.

"I can't!" said Bowser. "Dedede can open them all from the control room – since Wario got sacked we haven't been using Key Cards anymore,"

Snake thought for a bit. While Bowser hadn't given him what he wanted, he had given them a lot of information. He was just an idiotic oversized turtle who talked too much.

Bowser smiled to himself. This was his golden moment – he helped the smashers without betraying the others. While it was true he couldn't open the door, all the extra information wasn't necessary in his explanation – but he gave it anyway. Hopefully after all this they would understand that none of them were truly evil.

"Alright then…thanks for the info," said Snake. He then went over the grabbed the Dark Cannon. "Sorry about this,"

"No," replied Bowser. Snake began to charge the cannon. "I'm sorry," No one heard over the blast as Snake fired. Link and Falcon got away from Bowser and the shot hit – Bowser was just a figurine.

"Alright. Let's get out of here," suggested Link. They began piling up the chairs. Link went first, using the Clawshot. He then grabbed everyone else and brought them with him.

"So, where do we go next?" asked Falcon.

"We look at that room," instructed Link, pointing to the room next to the Ice Climbers' room.

"Y-you mean Ike, Kirby, and Pit's room?" asked Toon Link nervously. Link nodded.

"What will it be like?" wondered Popo. Link cautiously went to the door on the ground and slowly opened it. Everyone crowded around to see what it had become.

"Holy…" began Snake. They were looking at the ground. The ship wasn't going very quickly, but it was still shocking. From their angle, seeing the incinerator room was impossible.

"HEY!" yelled Nana. "HEY! OLIMAR! WARIO! ANYONE!"

"Great, now I'm going mad because of our lack of food!" moaned Wario. He and the Pikmin were playing with some coins while Olimar watched, reading a newspaper Wario had stored in his pockets. They were both very tired – trying to sleep with part of an open ship next to you was incredibly difficult.

"No…no…that's…Nana!" shouted Olimar.

"Yes! You guys are okay!" replied Nana.

"Where are you!" asked Olimar.

"Above you! We're looking through the ceiling door to Ike's old room!" came Popo.

"Popo! You're there, too! Who else is with you?" the Pikmin leader asked.

"Link, Zelda, Diddy Kong, Toon Link, Captain Falcon, and good old Snake!" replied Popo.

"Hey, let me talk!" shouted Wario. "When are you guys getting us out of here?"

"We're working on it! They're not using Key Cards anymore – now Dedede controls everything!" Nana explained.

"Dedede?" asked Wario suddenly. Wario turned to Olimar.

"Is it true that your red Pikmin can survive fire?" he asked.

Olimar nodded. "It is,"

Wario took a pen and small pad of paper from one of his pockets. He started drawing away.

"What's going on?" asked Snake.

"We have it under control. Start breaking out the other smashers!" commanded Wario.

"Are you sure?" asked Link, having to yell to be heard like the others.

"Positive!" yelled back Wario. He continued drawing away. He then took a red Pikmin and showed the drawing to him.

"What are you planning?" asked Olimar.

"Understand it?" asked Wario. The Pikmin squeaked and nodded. "Good," Wario then grabbed the Pikmin and threw him into the incinerator.

"WHAT THE HELL!" exclaimed Olimar, his eyes widening as if he had been hit. "What did you do that for! What is on that drawing!"

Wario showed it to him. It showed a long tube, and at the end, a circle with the code "R6" in it. Then, another circle with the letter "L" on it. "Do you know what this means?"

"…that you're nuts?" asked Olimar.

"No! You go up the incinerator – that's where the smoke goes out, like a chimney. Each incinerator eventually gathers its smoke pipes in the control room, and then it all flows outward the top of the ship. However, there is a small door in the control room used in case there is ever a need for cleaning. The Pikmin will open that door and then hit the button 'R6', followed by the 'L' button. R6 is the code for the Ice Climbers' room, while L means left. That will open the door on the left side of the Ice Climbers' room – the door right there!" Wario pointed to the unopened door on the opposite side of the open part of the ship.

"…genius," commended Olimar. "But…why are you helping us?"

"...call it a temporary alliance. I'm not losing my own life for those 3 idiots!" said Wario, referring to Bowser, Ganondorf, and Dedede.

"Hm. Alright then," Olimar shrugged.

* * *

This was his chance. The red Pikmin, let's call him Joe, went up the pipe, feeling nothing as the fire blazed around him. Wario told him he'd come to a door…and there it was. He saw it, open very, very slightly. He pushed it open a small amount and peeked in. King Dedede was enjoying lunch and the other side of the room, his back to the controls. Joe quietly crept up and jumped onto the control panel. He thought back to the thing Wario had shown him. He would hit the L and R5 buttons. He hopped onto the L button first. It beeped. Joe frantically turned to Dedede, hoping he hadn't heard.

"Huh? What was that?" wondered Dedede. He turned around and saw the Pikmin. "AAH!"

Dedede angrily ran at Joe. Joe hopped away. Dedede slammed his fist on the panel. He missed and ended up slamming the R2 button. Dedede continued to try and swat the small Pikmin, but Joe managed to sneak back into the incinerator and jump down to Wario.

* * *

"Hm?" wondered Marth. He and DK were in their room, and the door to their left, leading to the incinerator room they were just in, had just opened. Marth turned to his ape friend. "What do you think is going on?"

DK shrugged his shoulders and grunted.

Suddenly, from above, their ceiling opened. They looked up to find Link.

"Hey!" said Marth. "Did you open the door to the incinerator room for us?"

"Nope," replied Link. "But still, we're getting out of here!"

"Alright!" declared Marth happily, deciding to drop the door subject. He and DK began stacking chairs.

"Well, shall we do as usual?" Nana asked Link.

"You mean free everybody and then make our move? Sure!" Link nodded.

"I guess you'll be the 'leader' here," said Snake, leaning against a wall.

"I will be," replied Link. Snake folded his arms.

"I don't have a problem with that," he claimed. Link couldn't tell whether Snake was serious or not. Regardless, the two split up to open up all the other doors. Because it was later in the day than yesterday's break out, everybody had finished – including the Mario Bros. and Peach. The only ones missing, other than the usual ones, were Wario and Olimar, who had informed Nana and Popo that they would join them soon (they were attempting to send Joe back up the incinerator).

"Alright, let's calm down. I believe we all need to ready ourselves for the sea of Primids we are about to enter," suggested Link. Everybody readied themselves. Link knocked on the door that Dedede had come out of the other day.

"Bowser, that you?" asked Dedede's voice.

Everybody looked around. Captain Falcon cleared his throat and said in his deepest possible voice, "Yeah. It's me," The others, not expecting that, were ready to smack him for possibly telling Dedede that they were not Bowser.

Dedede laughed. "Sounds like you have a cold! Come on in, friend," The door opened.

"Now!" called Link. He led the group in, his blade ready. Dedede emerged from the control room with a smile that quickly faded. He tried to dash away but the Clawshot grabbed him from behind.

"GANONDORF!" cried the penguin king.

"On top of it!" Ganondorf bellowed. He pulled out a button and slammed on it. The Primids flooded into the outside corridor and then into the room itself.

"Look out!" cried Falcon.

"Oh, no!" shouted Zelda.

"Shouting will do nothing. Let's go!" cried Wolf. He dived headfirst into many Primids. He bashed them away with his claws and kicked around a few, but was soon outnumbered. Link, Ike, and DK ran to aid him. Mario and Luigi looked to each other and knew that they would be needed. They jumped up and slammed into the fighters.

"Keep going! This is the final stand!" screamed Link.

"We can-a do thiiiiis!" Luigi assured them. Others crashed in to aid their fellows. However, they were still greatly outnumbered by Primids.

"We're gonna do it this time! Just have some faith!" yelled Ness, using his PSI Powers against the Primids.

"Go! Don't stop until we've won!" commanded the trainer, boosting both the morale of his Pokémon and his friends.

"Pika!" commented Pikachu, the lightning stabbing many enemy Primids.

The smashers battled away. Explosions from Snake, slashes from Link, blasts of power from Lucas – their combined powers were unbeatable. The Primids were being whittled away, and soon only had about a 5 to 1 advantage against the smashers. However, it wasn't soon enough. They were tiring out, using their greatest strength against the first wave of Primids and not being ready for the second.

"Ha!" laughed Ganondorf, as he and Dedede appeared. "Had enough?"

"Never!" shouted Pit with a burst of confidence. He smashed some Primids out of the way and glided over to Ganondorf. He shot an arrow bravely, but Ganondorf ducked to dodge it. Pit separated his bow into dual blades and ran at Ganondorf.

"Wizard's Foot!" called Ganondorf, diving with dark power. He hit Pit square in the chest, causing him to fall back. Ganondorf chuckled. A beeping noise was heard, but no one paid it any attention. Link ran at Ganondorf to attempt to stop him, but Dedede had the upper hand – one of two Dark Cannons on board had been charging and was fired. Link shouted as he was hit in the chest and fell to the ground, no more than a figurine.

"No!" shouted Zelda. Ike pulled her back.

"Don't get too close!" he warned. Zelda nodded to show she understood.

Captain Falcon was the one to run up with his amazing speed. He ran at Dedede and readied a normal punch, but Dedede quickly threw a Smash Ball from his pocket. Falcon smashed it, but it didn't break! Dedede was completely unharmed. Dedede, quite cunning, quickly grabbed it and tossed it to Ganondorf. Ganondorf made sure it was broken with his excellent attack power – and its power shattered on him.

"Make him lose it, quick!" bellowed Snake with a sense of urgency. As most dove forward, a few stayed back. Those few were the correct ones. Ganondorf turned into his wolf form and dove lethally, causing everyone to become a trophy.

"We have to get out of here!" Ike cautioned quietly. He had stopped Zelda from going forward for her own protection. With them were Fox, who simply hadn't gone forward and stayed back to shoot at Ganondorf, and Lucas, who was either too smart or (more likely) too cowardly to charge at Ganondorf. Ike led them to an open room and shut the ceiling door quickly. Zelda sighed with relief. She then turned to her knight in shining armor.

"Ike…you…" she began.

"Sh!" hissed Fox. "I'm not trying to be mean…but they may be out there!"

"He's right…we should stay quiet for a bit," whispered Ike. They stayed quiet.

"AH!" yelped Lucas as the door to their right opened. All of them whirled around, Fox with his blaster aimed and Ike with his sword ready. In entered…Wario and Olimar.

"What!" gasped Ike.

"Ike! Zelda! Lucas! Fox!" exclaimed Wario. "I'm alive!"

"You two..." began Ike. He turned to Olimar.

"Wario sent a red Pikmin up the incinerator into the control room to get us out of that incinerator room," explained Olimar. "What's happening here?"

Ike explained the entire situation to the two of them. They both gasped.

"That's the last Smash Ball on the ship!" said Wario suddenly. They all stared at him. He clapped his hands over his mouth. "Erm, I mean…"

"Wario, are you going to join us?" Fox asked.

"I think he already has," snickered Olimar.

"Shut up!" snapped Wario. He turned to Fox. "Well…since it seems like you guys managed to take quite the bite out of the Primid force, and I don't like to lose…I suppose I'll help you,"

"Excellent," replied Ike.

"Tell us everything you know, please," requested Fox politely. Wario grumbled.

"Fine!" he replied.

"Looks like things may just work out as we wanted," smiled Olimar.

* * *

Author's Notes

Long chapter, took a while to do. Next one is currently on the way!

…yep. Not much to say. I think the chapter itself was a big enough impact. Nothing really requires explaining. Thanks for reading, as always.


	10. Uneasy Changes

"This is crazy! Any of us can see that!" said Bowser angrily, looking around at the trophies. After being only recently revived, he had no idea what to expect. He turned to Ganondorf. "You need to learn some damn control!"

"Calm yourself, you oversized turtle! If I hadn't stepped in they would have finished us all!" replied Ganondorf angrily.

"Cease, both of you!" Dedede stuck his hammer between the two.

"If this operation fails, it is because you are too soft!" snapped the warlock.

"I'm too soft! I dumped Ike, Kirby, and Pit, didn't I?" asked Bowser sarcastically.

"But they somehow survived," interjected Dedede. "I remember I saw Pit,"

"Whatever," shrugged Bowser. "The fact is, I did!"

"Why did we even bring you back? I like you more as a trophy," replied Ganondorf coolly.

"Watch it, or we can finish this on top of the ship!" threatened Bowser.

"I still hold the Primid control button, and they can flood you easily," warned Ganondorf, waving the button around.

"Ha! I bet the smashers took a huge bite out of the force!"replied Bowser without fear.

"They didn't. We finished them rather quickly. No doubt tired out from the work we've been assigning them," Ganondorf bluffed. Dedede caught the lie but said nothing.

Bowser hesitated. "Hmph," he grunted.

"That's what I thought," Ganondorf smiled. Dedede remained silent.

"So, we have every smasher as a trophy?" asked Bowser. Ganondorf nodded.

"Now all we must do is wait for the Chaos Barrier to calm itself," replied Ganondorf. "I'll be going to the Isle of Ancients to check with Master Hand to see the progress. While I'm gone, pick up these trophies, would you? They litter our usually pristine quarters,"

"…whatever," Bowser growled.

"It will be done," replied Dedede.

"Good," smiled Ganondorf. "Are we above the isle?"

Dedede turned to a monitor. "Yes…directly, in fact,"

"Excellent. Be sure to come back in about an hour. I don't want to be left here," said Ganondorf. Dedede nodded. Ganondorf grabbed a parachute, turned to Dedede and Bowser, and then left the room. He would jump out from what was Ike, Kirby, and Pit's room.

Dedede and Bowser remained silent until he was gone. "Alright, Dedede, let's start!" said Bowser suddenly.

Dedede turned. "Start what?"

"Getting the smashers back to normal, of course," replied Bowser in a 'matter-of-fact' voice.

Dedede stared at him. Bowser would truly betray them? "But what of the Chaos Barrier? Remember what Ganondorf had read on the plaque?"

Bowser thought back to a day from a long time ago; before the tournament. He, Dedede, Ganondorf, Wario, Meta Knight, and Wolf were told to meet at the Isle of Ancients. There, an ancient riddle was read out loud by Ganondorf.

"While you wish for peace, it contradicts fate,

You are all here for eternal hate,

Happiness is not, unfortunately, infinite

In Super Smash Brothers, battle is definite.

If soon the tides do not shake,

The Chaos Barrier will surely break,

And soon open, unleashing a beast,

That cannot be killed, or harmed in the least," read the Warlock slowly. He turned to the others with a concerned face.

"Wh-what does it mean?" asked Wario.

"Our decision is clear. We must destroy the peace we have sought for so long," explained Ganondorf sternly.

It was then that Wolf and Meta Knight left; they did not want a part in anything that was being planned. However, they had no idea that Ganondorf and the others had planned something so horrid. Bowser and Dedede followed only because of the greater good that would come; Wario enjoyed being sneaky, but also did it somewhat for the sake of the Chaos Barrier. While Ganondorf enjoyed the peace they had and wished to keep it, he had also joined the evil side for the benefits of power he had thirsted for.

Bowser recalled the event, remembering every detail; Wolf and Meta Knight's anger; Dedede's reluctant agreement; Wario's nod, accompanied by a grin. He sighed.

"But the Chaos Barrier is most likely fixed by now!" argued Bowser. Dedede shook his head.

"We just don't know that," sighed the king, clearly tired by the events. "We will soon,"

"Dedede, we can't keep them like this!" argued Bowser, motioning to the scattered trophies. "They are our friends!"

"Please, Bowser. Give it a day. Will you help me shovel them into the prison?" asked Dedede.

Bowser gasped. "Oh, come on! Can't you draw the line somewhere?"

Dedede sighed once again. "I suppose you're right. Let's take the day off. It's not like there's anything to worry about,"

* * *

Zelda was so confused. She watched Ike, Wario, Pit, Fox, and Olimar talk about plans to help save their comrades. Lucas was in the corner, trying to sleep. She continued debating with herself – a debate impossible to win. She was angry with herself because of what she was debating about, which added to her distress. Almost all of her friends were captured by Bowser and the others, and all she could think about was who she loved?

Link and Ike were both her heroes. Obviously, Link had rescued her so many times from Ganon's dark clutches. However, she and Link were just friends – both of them felt that way. Despite that, the two of them had had some close moments – such as when Link saved her from Ganon and returned the Ocarina of Time to her. That moment was very loving and meaningful. In addition, she knew Link so much longer than she knew Ike – it would only make sense for her to pick Link.

Ike, however, was also her savior. She wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for him. In addition, he had been kind to her since the entire tournament started. Plus, the fact that she didn't know Ike very well allowed an opportunity for them to learn about each other a bit more – and if it didn't work out, so be it. But what if she was wrong about Link? What if she hurt the man she owed so much to?

The fact that THIS was what troubled her was what truly enraged her with herself. Not only was she unable to answer such a simple problem, she was also putting her feelings in the way of the lives of so many people – including Link and Toon Link. They needed her, but she let her heart get in the way of her mind. She'd have to suck it up and get ready to battle their enemies. She walked over to where the men were talking.

"Hello, everyone," she greeted. They all replied with hearty "hellos". "How goes the planning?"

"It's going well, thanks. We already have a few ideas," replied Ike.

Zelda smiled. "Ah, good,"

"We're debating whether we should stay as one mass or if we should split into groups," explained Fox. "There aren't exactly enough of us to split up, but moving in as one solid force could get us all defeated at once…"

"Hm…" Zelda hadn't any military training, being a princess, and so didn't have any idea on which plan would be better. "Why don't we…ask Ike?"

The whole group turned to Ike. Rather shocked, he hesitated before speaking. "I believe we should move together. A group this size is perfect for being able to maneuver quickly,"

"Works for me," said Olimar. "I'll ready my Pikmin,"

"Alright. When should we attack?" asked Wario.

"…now," suggested Pit. They turned to him. "It has to be now. They're bound to notice that some of us are missing eventually. If we don't move quickly, we lose the advantage of them thinking we no longer exist,"

"Genius," commended Olimar. Fox smiled.

"It's decided then. Let's prepare quickly, everyone! Go!" commanded Ike.

"Lucas, get up," Wario shook the small boy. Lucas opened his eyes slowly. "We're moving out!"

"N-now? Okay..." Lucas replied quietly.

"Finally…my revenge," Fox said quietly to himself. "This is for you, Lombardi,"

"Ike, can I talk to you?" asked Zelda timidly. Ike sheathed his sword and turned to her.

"What's up, Zelda?" he asked.

"Well…" began Zelda. She paused. Ike stared at her blankly.

"Ike!" came Pit from behind. Ike turned to him. "You and I have been in this together since we switched the groups around! Now, let's finish it as good friends!"

"Agreed," Ike smiled and shook Pit's hand. "Alright, everyone, let's move out!"

Ike had forgotten Zelda. Zelda frowned. What a jerk. But the worst part was the fact that Ike wasn't a jerk. The only reason he wasn't continuing to talk to Zelda was because his mind was occupied with other things, like the well being of everybody else. She sighed. After they won, she promised herself, she would tell him.

* * *

Dedede sipped his tea happily. Around him he looked at the trophies of those who were once his friends. Bowser sighed.

"I can't believe you can just sit here and stare at them!" barked Bowser. Dedede took another sip of tea.

"Because of the greater good we are giving them. This is…temporary," Dedede replied.

Bowser growled. "How can you be so calm about this? I'm evil, but I'm not _heartless_!"

"H-heartless? You think I'm heartless? I still feel remorse about this, but I don't moan about it because I'm a true villain!" replied Dedede, knowing he was lying.

"You're calling me NOT a true villain? I'm evil in the freaking spin-offs! And you have the nerve to say I'm not a true villain!" exploded Bowser, standing up and kicking a Luigi trophy out of his way.

Dedede stood up, setting his tea on the table. "Watch it, you! Or I'll show you how a true villain can battle!"

"You think you can take me on?" replied Bowser.

"I do," Dedede picked up his hammer. The two glared at each other, until Bowser finally broke the tension.

"Then bring it on," he taunted, readying himself. Dedede did not hesitate. With a war cry he dove at Bowser and the two battled.

* * *

Master Hand looked around. "He's late," he groaned.

Ganondorf landed suddenly. He looked up. "How is all?"

Master Hand turned away. "Come with me," Suddenly, a gigantic boulder in the ground moved, revealing a pit. Ganondorf gasped. He hadn't seen the Chaos Barrier since the first time he had seen it. He and Master Hand went down the large pit, through a rough, cracked stairway. Ganondorf nearly slipped, but caught himself. After what felt like hours of stepping, but was more around 15 minutes, they were deep underground, far underneath the Isle of Ancients. In there was a great, dark barrier. It did not seem solid, but it was definitely impassable. Behind it, shadows were visible – in the shapes of old enemies. Ganondorf recognized a great Piranha Plant, a large hand with corrupted fingers, and a human-like being – who was truly the farthest thing from human as possible. Ganondorf backed up. Master Hand stopped him.

"As intimidating as it may seem, do not fear it," instructed the hand. Ganondorf took a breath.

"Hm," Ganondorf put his hand on his chin. "It looks…different,"

"How do you mean?" asked Master Hand, knowing the answer.

"When we saw it before, it was one big, dark wall…the shadows of our old foes were not there…" said Ganondorf.

"Precisely," Master Hand replied. The warlock turned to him. "The barrier is weakening!"

Ganondorf gasped. "Bowser…" he cursed quietly. "Now what shall we do?"

"I'm…unsure. Just…continue what you're doing until further instruction," Master Hand said quietly.

"Yes, sir," replied Ganondorf. They began walking up the stairs once again.

* * *

"All right…let's be careful, now," said Pit quietly, as they grouped outside the door.

"Wario, do it," instructed Ike. Wario nodded and knocked on the door. It was replied to with a sudden slam.

"YAAARGH!" screamed a voice from inside. "Damn you!" Another slam…the door came _clean off! _It fell down, nearly crushing Wario. The small group looked inside. Bowser and Dedede were attacking each other viciously. Bowser ran into Dedede with his shoulder, causing Dedede to knock over the table that had his tea on it. The mug shattered and the table toppled, Dedede on top of it. Bowser ran at him but the penguin king rolled out of the way. Bowser hit the table and tripped over it, plummeting into the tea.

"Get them!" shouted Lucas with amazing bravery. The whole group turned to him. Lucas had never shouted like that, other than during a match. They noticed he was staring at one of the trophies littering the room – Ness's, to be exact. Lucas dove at Ness's trophy.

"Hey! Stop him!" yelled Dedede. Bowser turned. The two teamed up again and ran at Lucas. Dedede was struck from the side by Ike.

"Ready!" asked Ike. "Let's move!"

Fox dove at Bowser feet first, slamming into his head. Bowser toppled away, hitting the ground with a thud. Pit, Zelda, Wario, and Olimar reinforced them, mercilessly attacking the two. Lucas continued to run around, bringing back their old friends. It was over quickly – very quickly.

"We win! We win!" cheered Wario happily.

* * *

A great noise was heard. It was like a crack, after which there was a great blast of wind. Ganondorf and Master Hand immediately turned around. They hadn't gone very far, so they darted back down the stairs. 5 minutes later they were there. The once solid barrier had great cracks of a bright green color in it – and the shadows within were becoming more than shadows.

"B-but how!" shouted Ganondorf. "You and I are evil, are we not!"

"We are not enough. We have been abandoned," Master Hand replied.

"What can we do!" yelled Ganondorf over the horrid noise emitting. Master Hand could not respond before an enormous crack of red color split through the middle of the dark wall – it was over. The Chaos Barrier opened.

"AAAAAH!"

* * *

Author's Notes

Sorry about the huge delay for this chapter. I've been at camp/hanging with friends/doing summer reading.

I wrote a lot about Dedede and Bowser in this chapter. I felt like they needed more spotlight.

Anyway, the Chaos Barrier is open! Was all in vein? Is everyone doomed! I will try to make this update take less time – once again, I'm sorry.


	11. Old Friends and Old Enemies, Part 2

"There are more back here!" called Pit. He had found the prison – a cage where a small group of trophies was kept. He scanned them over. Yoshi! Lucario! Sonic! Samus! They weren't working with the enemy! In addition, he saw Meta Knight and…

"FALCO!" exclaimed Fox, entering the room and seeing his old friend. "H-he's alive!"

"What!" exclaimed someone. Soon the whole prison room was filled with the now resurrected smashers. Wolf played with the lock a bit, using the blade on his gun to jab into it. All eyes were focused on him, all noises silent except the occasional grunt.

_Click._

The door opened. Wolf triumphantly stood up. Everybody ran in to save the friends they hadn't seen for so long.

"F-Falco…you're…" Fox stuttered.

"I'm fine," replied Falco sternly. He smirked. "It's been a while since I've seen Fox McCloud so emotional,"

Fox folded his arms. "Hmph," he grunted in reply.

"Yoshi!" exclaimed Peach, hugging the dinosaur. "I just knew you'd be okay!"

"Yoshiii!" replied the lovable dinosaur as Luigi patted him on the head.

"We wondered where you went off to," said Ike with a small smile.

"You lost faith in me?" asked Meta Knight.

"I'll admit that I did. However, seeing you now, I'll know not to make that mistake again," commended Ike. Meta Knight did not reply.

Samus looked at Sonic. Sonic stared back. Finally, they were together…and not figurines. Despite that, neither one knew what to say – while their feelings for one another were mutual, they didn't know that.

"Um…hey," said Sonic with a slight smirk.

"Hello," returned Samus.

"We're…untrophified," Sonic smiled.

"Finally…" agreed Samus. There was an odd silence that was soon broken up.

"Yooooshi!" Yoshi cheered, diving between the two of them. Lucario slowly walked forward to the small group as well.

"I guess we're all together again. The 4 rebels!" laughed Sonic. Yoshi and Samus smiled, while Lucario remained emotionless. "Don't you ever change your attitude?"

Lucario looked shocked at the sudden question from Sonic. "I…"

"Your face is a good enough answer," teased Sonic. Lucario tensed up again, folding his arms and looking down. Samus giggled, trying to hide it.

"Everyone, we are going to-a have a meeting," reported Luigi to the group of 4. "Please-a meet us in the main cabin,"

The people were talking amongst themselves. Most of them approached Falco with hugs, handshakes, sighs of relief, or gasps at the thought of a zombie Falco (well, Luigi did that…no one else did…). Mario, being the natural leader for such a diverse group, stood at the end of the ship on top of a table.

"May I-a have your attention please?" he asked. Either out of not being able to hear him or ignoring him, the group did not cease. He cleared his throat. "Everyone, may I-a…"

"!" screamed Luigi. The room fell dead silent.

Mario remained silent for a bit as well, out of shock. However, he just shrugged his shoulders and went on. "We are finally free! Bowser and King Dedede are defeated, while Wario has become our ally! We will be going back to Smash Central very soon. However, we do have two problems: both Ganondorf and our pal R.O.B. are missing,"

"No, sir!" someone suddenly interjected. The room turned to Wario. "R.O.B. is easy to find. He is hidden in one of the work rooms. Once we land the ship, I will personally inspect every one, sir!"

The room started talking again – about R.O.B., Wario's knowledge, and pizza. However, one glare from Luigi caused immediate silence.

"Thank you, Wario," commended Mario. "Alright, folks, our only true problem now is Ganondorf. If he does decide to launch an attack, I'd like to introduce you all to our 5 commanders. I am one. I will be leading the Mushroom Squad,"

"Hey, everyone. Name's Sonic, and Mario offered me this position and I kindly accepted. I'm the head of what I like to call the Emerald Union," reported Sonic with a grin.

"I am Link, one of Nintendo's finest, as you all know. Battling Ganondorf is easy for me, as I have done it many times, but I'd love to have comrades with me. I'm leading the Triforce Group, and I swear to do it well," Link stepped down and allowed Fox onto the chair.

"Can I just say something? Why are we all introducing ourselves…we already know each other, right?" stated Fox. The room began to talk again, but Luigi had it silenced with his threatening glare. "Just something I noticed…anyway, I'm in charge of Team McCloud. Let's do this,"

"And last but not least…" said Mario.

"I was the first 3rd party to ever be incorporated into the Smash Brothers series. Impressive, no?" asked Snake to the room. "Anyway, I'm in charge of the Gold Mastery. I don't know why I chose that name, but I like it,"

"There you-a have it, everybody. It was a tough decision, but I find these 4 to be the finest leaders in our midst. Thank you all for-a listening. Now then, what else should we talk about…" Mario's voice trailed off. Luigi, distracted by a fly that had entered the room, was too busy trying to clap it that when everyone else was talking he didn't flinch.

"So, what do you think of the commander selections?" Falco asked the person in front of him, who he couldn't see. The person turned around and gasped. It was Marth. "Oh…uh, hey…"

"F-Falco…" Marth stuttered. "I killed you…"

"Erm, apparently not," smirked the bird. Marth smiled a bit as well. Donkey Kong watched the conversation unfold.

"So…you became a trophy?" asked Marth.

"Yep. Meta Knight rescued me, but when we went back to try to attack the bad guys, we were caught by this army of Primids!" explained Falco.

"Hm," said Marth. Falco was disappointed.

"Just 'hm'? There is an ARMY of PRIMIDS in this SHIP!" repeated Falco.

"Yes, I know. We've battled them a few times," explained Marth.

"Really? You guys stood up to that huge group?" asked Falco. Marth nodded. "Ha, well done!"

"Thanks," said Marth. "We actually lost a few times, though,"

"That's okay!" smiled Falco. Marth smiled as well. Falco held out his hand. Marth shook it happily. Donkey Kong smiled as well, seeing the two become friends again. Donkey Kong scanned the wonderful group of smashers happily, finally achieving what they deserved. The battle was over and they had won…or so they thought. Donkey Kong was still on edge, ready for Ganondorf to attempt a grand counterattack. Therefore, he was ready when it happened.

BOOM!

The entire ship shook from the enormous slam. People all over the room fell over on top of one another.

"He's-a here!" exclaimed Mario. "And we didn't even organize groups yet! Commanders, grab a handful of smashers and—"

BOOM!

"Gaah!" yelled someone, hitting their head on the wall. The lights went out and the ship stopped. Suddenly, the lights flashed back on revealing many figures – all of those who they had defeated during the Subspace Emissary. Duon, one side with its gleaming blades and the other with powerful, intimidating rocket launchers. Petey Pirhana, the gargantuan, king of plants with an attitude. Porky, so evil yet well protected in his machine. All the other bosses stood in the room, as well, eager to fight. However, in the middle, Tabuu floated emotionlessly. He suddenly smirked.

"Ready?" said the figure. No one had ever heard Tabuu's cold voice before. They flinched at the horridness. "Four terminated, thirty-four to go," said the spirit, referring to the falls of Ganondorf, Bowser, King Dedede, and R.O.B. that he didn't have to trouble himself with.

With a sudden flash they were teleported somewhere – to the top of the ship where Marth and Falco had fought so long ago. The bosses were all very happy to see their rivals.

"Commanders, attack!" yelled Mario, pointing forward and charging in. He was followed by a small handful, as the smashers attempted to break themselves up evenly. However, groups were quickly separated by the smashes and explosions going on. Eventually, it became an even team with no commanders.

Ike and Pit, staying together after becoming good friends, took on Rayquaza along with some other fighters. Rayquaza dove downward and caused a great smash, sending Diddy Kong flying. He was flying at the edge very, very quickly.

"NO!" cried Marth. However, he was stopped by a barrier.

"I wish for all of you in the form of a trophy. We can't have you falling off the edge, now can we?" revealed Tabuu, creating a safety barrier around the whole ship. Marth sighed, readying his blade. He jumped at Rayquaza and slashed quickly. Ike and Pit joined in, along with Peach and Wolf. Captain Falcon ran in from behind but was stopped by a large missile that struck him by Duon. He dusted himself off and charged at his new target.

Mario and Luigi worked as a dynamic duo, attacking rapidly. Galleom went into his tank form and charged at the Mario Bros. He knocked Luigi back. With a battle cry, Mario whirled around and charged at Galleom. Pikachu and Kirby joined him, attacking the machine. Suddenly, Galleom unleashed a lethal hand bash that knocked away Kirby, causing him to hit the barrier and barely get up. Mario and Pikachu were distracted, allowing Galleom to stiffen up and fall down on top of Mario, crushing him. Galleom got back up, seeing the downed plumber, and was about to finish him when Pikachu started to jump in and electrify him. Galleom was ready to silence Pikachu, had it not been for initiative on his other side – he was being attacked by Meta Knight, Olimar, and Charizard. Olimar quickly plucked up more and more Pikmin to try to stop Galleom's terror, but Galleom continued to hit them away. Meta Knight jumped at the machine, along with Charizard. The two were ready to go for his head, but he suddenly became his tank form again and dove right at Olimar. Pikachu attempted to stop him, but he barreled into the Pikmin warrior, knocking him back into the barrier and causing him to become a trophy.

"Five terminated, thirty-three to go," announced Tabuu, continuing to attack the large group he was against.

Explosions, fire balls, slashes, bombs, magic – it was so much. The ship was the home of the greatest battle ever fought between these smashers and their rivals. DK jumped up and slammed Petey Pirhana square in the head. Yoshi chimed in, helping DK. Lucario, Samus, and Sonic arrived to reinforce Yoshi – they were a team. Lucario daringly ran right up to Petey Pirhana and continuously hit him in the legs. Petey laughed and kicked him back, damaging Lucario – exactly what he wanted. Lucario, whose aura was now glowing fiercely, ran at Petey with great speed and pummeled him in the gut. Sonic used a homing attack to hit Petey as well. Petey jumped upward to escape the pain and came crashing down. He hit Samus and Sonic back, leaving him only Yoshi, Lucario, and Donkey Kong to deal with. However, he underestimated the loyalty the smashers had for one another – Samus and Sonic returned before he could even get another attack in.

Mr. Game & Watch joined Ness and Lucas as they squared off against their old foe – Porky. Porky shot out a multitude of missiles, exploding and hitting them all back. Toon Link ran over to aid, but Porky jumped upward and crashed down onto where Toon Link was standing.

"Oh, no you don't!" yelled Captain Falcon, tackling Toon Link to get him out of the way. Porky came down onto the floor of the arena with a bang – but missed both Toon Link and Captain Falcon. Porky, enraged, began attacking more quickly. Ness attacked back just as fiercely. However, a sudden blast from Duon, who had missed the fighters he was contending with, hit Ness hard toward the barrier.

"No!" yelled Lucas, running in the direction Ness was sent. Porky grinned and shot missiles to exactly where Lucas was running – he calculated correctly and knocked Lucas away, making him into a trophy. Ness hit the barrier but got up. He saw Lucas's sacrifice – and was angry. Ness ran at Porky, ready to fight. Toon Link was slashing the machine with Falcon when they were both hit by multiple, rapid stabs. It knocked them both down. Mr. Game & Watch ran at Porky valiantly, but was knocked back by a missile. Porky thought he had won…until Ness managed to hit him hard.

"Interesting…they still resist us…hm…this may be risky, but…" Tabuu contemplated. He made his decision quickly after seeing Duon suffer heavy damage. He spread out his wings for great Off-Waves – he would only be able to do it once after being resurrected so recently. It knocked the smashers around with great force, causing those injured to be completely finished. Wolf, Toon Link, Captain Falcon, Luigi, Lucario, Pikachu, and Kirby immediately became trophies. Tabuu smiled, happy with his work. He knew that the fight's scales definitely tipped in his favor as he continued to knock back the huge group trying to kill him.

* * *

Author's Notes

The greatest battle of all time! …well, maybe not, but you have to admit, this is pretty damn epic.

Thanks for reading. And yes, I am making you wait for the battle's conclusion. And no, I'm not telling you which side wins.


	12. The Ultimate Result

…I'm seriously sorry about the 3-4 months this chapter took. I just started my freshman year in high school, and it has proven to be as difficult as expected. I completely forgot about this story, but I'm determined to finish it. So here you go, ladies and gentlemen, the end of the fight.

* * *

Even with Tabuu's vicious Off Waves, the remaining smashers trudged on. Their trophified allies were scattered around the ship, making it impossible to revive them without getting cornered by a boss. Ike, Link, Ness, Lucas, and Snake took on the damaged Porky. While he tried to fire at all of them, it was too difficult. Snake smirked.

"This should take care of you!" shouted Snake, planting a powerful mine. He then jumped away and waved to Porky to attract him. Angered, Porky started to walk over, but stopped. Snake was puzzled as to why Porky hadn't attacked him…but his question was soon answered as Rayquaza dove into him from behind, knocking Snake onto his own mine, which detonated painfully. He was launched into the air. Rayquaza then went up at him, slamming him into the top of the safety barrier and causing him to become a trophy.

As Porky laughed at the smashers losing yet another combatant, Ness powerfully focused a blast of PK Flash onto him. Stunned, Porky flinched before turning around to attack. From behind, Ike used his mighty blade to smash him. Link threw a bomb from afar, then ran in to get close. Porky became overwhelmed by all the attackers. Rayquaza was too busy with others, and Porky self-destructed, scattering the group of smashers that had defeated him.

Link was sent into the back of Ridley, knocking him down. Samus, Sonic, Wario, and Peach were battling him, but weren't faring well. Shocked, Ridley whirled around to see Link. Wario smiled, seeing an opportunity. He ran at Ridley as fast as he could, ready to unleash the beast from inside him.

However, Ridley expected this. He turned around just in time, whipping Wario with his tail. Wario was finished, defeated immediately upon impact with Ridley's powerful tail.

"Wario!" gasped Sonic.

"He had done so much for us on this journey – betraying his own comrades! You'll pay!" Link shouted angrily. He jumped up and slashed wildly at Ridley's face, angering and injuring the beast. Samus and Sonic joined. Peach chucked vegetables from afar, keeping her distance. Ridley struggled to break free of the 4 valiant attackers. However, as with Pokey, reinforcement arrived. Duon shook off his attackers and drove over. His blue side, with the blades, slashed Peach away, and his pink side fired rockets at Ridley. Ridley screeched in pain; Duon had betrayed him to hurt the smashers.

As Sonic and Samus went flying, they managed to grab hold of each other in the air.

"DON'T LET ME GO!" screamed Samus.

"AS CLICHÉ AS THIS IS, I WON'T!" promised Sonic.

They fell together, surviving the impact. Link and Peach both became trophies, too hurt to continue. Ridley was also finished after being sabotaged by Duon. Sonic helped Samus up, and they realized they were next to Rayquaza, battling Mario and Fox. Without thinking, the two immediately darted in to aid them. Sonic leaped up and slammed his fist into Rayquaza's face. The unexpected opposition stunned Rayquaza, allowing the four smashers to attack madly. Rayquaza eventually fell, but not without unleashing one last blast of energy, which was dodged. Mario thanked Samus and Sonic for their brave help that came in the nick of time.

However, others weren't so lucky. The last blast of energy released by Rayquaza slammed into Ness's back, immediately defeating him. In addition, Jigglypuff, both Ice Climbers, Diddy Kong, Mr. Game & Watch, the Pokémon Trainer (and his troops), and Lucas were wiped out by another blast from the Off Waves.

The remaining smashers banded together into two groups. Mario, Fox, Ike, Zelda, Samus, and Sonic took on Duon and Petey, while Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Pit, Metaknight, and Falco battled Galleom.

Mario led his team into charging at their opponents. Duon fired madly, trying to hit all the smashers coming at him, but it was impossible. Petey was useless, missing countless times as the speedy group moved in close. Fox leaped upward and kicked Petey square in the face. Zelda, Samus, and Sonic joined him in assaulting Petey. Duon was seeing the same situation he saw with Ridley – and acted accordingly. He fired missiles at Petey readily.

"Watch out!" exclaimed Mario. Sonic and Samus quickly jumped off, recognizing what was happening. Fox managed to get off quickly, and Zelda jumped off at the last second – but one of the missiles was following her. She knew she wouldn't be able to outrun it and screamed. The missile hit someone…

And the trophy of Ike was sent flying away. Zelda was saved by him – yet again. Now, in the middle of the battle, her head was clouded with the thoughts of Ike and Link…they both meant so much to her. They had both saved her…but Link was like a brother. Ike was someone she could hold and love…but now was not the time to think. But she couldn't concentrate. Her spells would not be as powerful if her heart were demanding attention. What to do? Could she just forget about the whole thing? Leave both of them? Could—

Her thought process was demolished, as was she as Petey swung and slammed her with one of his cages. She became a trophy, joining both of the men she loved. Petey was easily brought down by the remaining smashers.

Donkey Kong, Marth, Yoshi, Pit, Metaknight, and Falco easily took down the injured Galleom. While his tank form was powerful, they banded together and managed to win the battle. However, not without problems. Galleom used his great fists to slam away Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Pit. Metaknight took him down with his supreme blade skills. The loss of Donkey Kong was painful, but it only strengthened the determination of the group to defeat their final adversary.

Tabuu.

Mario, Fox, Meta Knight, Sonic, Samus, Marth, and Falco, their friends scattered around them, against the most evil being to have ever existed.

"Here I stand," spoke the demon. "A man thought to be dead, the man thought to have killed him, fighting against me. A bounty-hunter who went without friends for a great amount of time, with the hedgehog she has now fallen in love with fighting against me. The world's most renowned video game star, along with someone who can't decide on being friend or foe and one of the greatest space warriors in the galaxy fighting against me. An odd mix,"

The smashers returned with nothing. Tabuu smirked and began the fight. He floated upwards, then dove at them. It was time to test their skills. All dodged him, and Fox managed to land a hit as he came down. Tabuu was charging some sort of magical blast, giving the 7 smashers time to attack him vigorously. Tabuu teleported away in a small explosion, scattering the fighters slightly. He reappeared near Falco and fired the blast at him, knocking him away.

"Falco!" cried Fox. He tried to catch him but missed. Falco hit the ground with a thud, but he was alright. Fox helped his companion up. They joined the others in attacking Tabuu with all they had. Sonic balled up and flung himself at Tabuu multiple times, followed by slashes from Meta Knight and Marth. Tabuu was taken a beating, but wasn't nearly done yet. He suddenly unleashed a powerful attack, a forceful beam of yellow light. It caught Sonic and Mario in its blast. Tabuu then shrank the safety-barrier, causing Mario and Sonic to slam into it. Tabuu laughed at the two downed warriors. He flew over to them, ready to finish them.

"No!" shouted Samus. She slashed at him with her Plasma Whip. Fox and Falco fired with their blasters, trying to stop him, but it was useless. They had managed to stall him, however, for enough time for Mario to open his eyes. He got up and saw Tabuu headed at them. He picked up Sonic and tossed him out of the way – taking the blast completely. Mario was sent sprawling into the barrier right behind him, and immediately became a trophy. Tabuu shrunk the barrier further to keep Mario outside so he could not be revived.

"Only 6 left?" laughed Tabuu. He turned around to find Marth coming at him. Marth delivered a kick to Tabuu's nose. He shook it off and then smiled. He was ready for his Off Waves. They emerged from him and he gladly sent out the shockwave. However, his power was stopped before he could do much damage. Sonic, making a quick recovery, had once again crashed into his wings, shattering them. Only Marth was defeated by Tabuu's blast. "5 more!"

Fox angrily charged with Meta Knight following. Tabuu whipped around immediately to slam them with a powerful ball of power he had in his hand. The two flew and slammed the barrier, both becoming trophies. The barrier shrunk more as Tabuu laughed evilly. Samus gasped, noticing only she, Sonic, and Falco remained. Sonic grabbed her hand and smiled to reassure her. Tabuu readied himself and let out a sudden beam of light. The 3 dodged it, scattering themselves to surround Tabuu. Sonic immediately darted in, followed by Samus. Falco blasted from afar, but soon joined in the beating. Tabuu managed to smack Samus away. Sonic and Falco continued to pummel him. Samus ran to rejoin them.

"Enough!" exclaimed Tabuu viciously. He smacked Falco away and dodged an attack from Sonic, allowing him to form his Golden Bracket. It swept at Falco, who jumped out of the way. Sonic tried to leap away from it as well, but Tabuu made the safety barrier even smaller, causing Sonic to hit it when he jumped. The bracket enclosed around him. Samus shrieked as Sonic was bounced around the small barrier. She ran at Tabuu and attacked him with all she had. Tabuu, angered, had the bracket home in on her. It was coming at her rapidly, but Samus didn't move.

Until, at the last second, she sprung up at Tabuu's face. The bracket, with Sonic inside it, crashed into Samus and Tabuu. All 3 screamed, as Tabuu fell to the ground and Samus and Sonic became trophies immediately. Tabuu got up rather quickly with a large grunt. He tightened the barrier once again to keep Samus and Sonic out of reach from his last opponent, Falco.

"Ready to admit defeat?" taunted the phantom. Falco shook his head.

"You can't kill me," he smirked.

"And why not?" Tabuu inquired.

"Because I've already died!" laughed Falco. He charged at Tabuu with burning ambition, for all of his friends and comrades. They had fought hard when they thought he was gone, now he would do the same. He dodged a jab from Tabuu and leaped upwards. He came down with both feet, slamming into Tabuu. The safety barrier became larger as Tabuu lost his control over it. Tabuu growled, missing another shot with his power beam. Falco dashed at him and managed to land a solid punch. The barrier became wider still.

"Impossible! You broke the Chaos Barrier! You must pay for your actions!" yelled Tabuu.

"Our actions? You mean, becoming peaceful? Why must we pay for peace?" asked Falco.

"Without conflict, I cease to exist!" Tabuu snapped. "I am formed by hate, pain, despair, and death. Without it I, like the Chaos Barrier, would deteriorate,"

"So by being peaceful you're gone? It's a win-win," Falco leaped upward, shooting down at Tabuu. Tabuu managed to hit him with a blast of energy, sending Falco into the base of Fox's trophy. Fox shook his head and stood up, seeing Falco.

"Falco…what's going on?" he asked.

"Help me kill him!" Falco instructed, charging at Tabuu. Fox smiled and gladly aided in smashing Tabuu away with his close comrade. Tabuu was too wounded and angered to take on both at once. The barrier continued to get wider and his attacks continued to become weaker. Falco finally ended it with a valiant uppercut. Tabuu, with a great scream, flew upwards and exploded in a flash of lightning. Falco landed on both feet. He looked at Fox and finally fell to the ground, exhausted. It had been a long journey.


	13. Tranquility

"…here! I've found them!" shouted Wario. Mario, Ike, Falco, Marth, Zelda, Samus, and Sonic followed him down the steps of where the Chaos Barrier was. They entered the dark chamber at the bottom, finding the trophies of Ganondorf and Master Hand. They also saw the barrier – completely solid black this time. Wario revived both of them.

Ganondorf moaned. "Ah!" he jumped. "The barrier is sealed again!"

"But how? The world should be in chaos!" exclaimed Master Hand.

"We defeated them all," explained Ike.

"Tabuu wasn't at his fullest power, as he had just been reawakened. The other bosses were also finished by us," said Mario. Ganondorf nodded to show he understood.

"You truly defeated them all? Even without his full strength, Tabuu is still a threat," commended Master Hand. "Well done,"

"Thank you," replied Sonic.

"Now then, let us go back to Final Destination for a meeting. The barrier can't break without a cool down period, so we can be allies for now," Master Hand explained. They piled into the ship and flew to where they hadn't been for weeks – home.

* * *

"Alright, settle down!" announced Mario. A great dinner was being held in celebration of their victory. All of the smashers, including the found R.O.B. and revived Bowser and Dedede, were in attendance. Mario cleared his throat as the smashers settled down. He didn't need Luigi to help – he was the commanding prescience at this meeting. "My friends, we have overcome the devious enemies of the Chaos Barrier together,"

The crowd howled in happiness at this. Diddy tossed his hat into the air with joy, and Fox shook Wolf's hand heartily. Luigi hugged Peach, Sonic hugged Samus, and Nana hugged Popo.

Mario continued. "However, to prevent the tragedy and damage that happened from happening again, we can't keep this everlasting peace we have worked so hard for,"

The crowd stopped. Sadness caused the end of the cheers. They looked around at each other. Fox, who had just shook Wolf's hand, questioned the friendship they were beginning. Would they be allowed to keep it? Bowser and Donkey Kong looked at each other – two powerhouses who would once again become enemies. Wario looked down sadly. Where would he fall? Who would he be allowed to call friends?

Mario sighed before he spoke again. "How can we make-a this possible? Any suggestions?"

Not one word was spoken. No one wanted to lose the friends and the peace they had fought so hard for.

"…I have it," spoke one person at the end of the table. All eyes shifted to Falco, who stood up proudly. "I have the compromise. The Chaos Barrier will not break, and we will remain happy,"

"How?" asked Link. "How can that be?"

"You should know…I was the last one Tabuu fought. It came down to just myself and Fox battling against him," announced Falco. "Tabuu said something before we engaged. He said without conflict, he, like the Chaos Barrier, would deteriorate,"

"So? This is not new information," replied Snake with folded arms.

"You're correct. We've just been interpreting it wrong. Without conflict, Tabuu can't exist. So we don't need to be mortal enemies. We just need conflict. What is one way to create conflict without enemies?" Falco asked.

"Fighting our friends?" asked Pit. "How does that work?"

"We were doing it just before we were abducted," Falco smiled as the room understood what he meant. "Our tournament was what kept the Chaos Barrier from being broken the whole time! However, Bowser and his crew didn't give the tournament enough time to repair the barrier, and decided to abduct us all before realizing there was no need!"

"Of course!" said Ike with a smile. "We don't need hate – just violence!"

"As odd as that sounds, you're right," agreed Dedede. "As long as we battle, even as friends, the Chaos Barrier will always remain intact,"

"It is decided then. We shall resume the tournament in 3 days time!" Mario established. "Until then, rest up. Let's make this a tournament one to remember!"

The crowd once again cheered, their morale regained. The rest of the feat was excellent (at least, as excellent as a feast with no time to plan could be).

* * *

"Ike," said Zelda. Ike was on the balcony, looking out into the distance. Pit was with him, the two becoming excellent friends. Zelda hadn't noticed him. "Oh…hello Pit,"

"Hi Zelda," returned Pit. There was a silence.

"Did you need something?" asked Ike.

"Well…" Zelda stuttered. Pit was honorable enough, wasn't he? He was the only representative from Kid Icarus, who was he going to tell? "I thought…as we fought against evil in the ship, you and I grew to become friends,"

"Yes, I agree. I'm very happy about that friendship," Ike smiled. Zelda smiled as well. When she began to speak, though, it became a frown.

"Well…at times I thought perhaps we should become more than friends," said Zelda finally. Pit coughed. Ike kept the smile on his face.

"I see nothing wrong with that," Ike smiled wider now. Zelda did as well. "But what about Link?"

"I talked to Link…he agreed that he and I were more of brother and sister," said Zelda. Her smile beamed. Ike hugged her tightly and she hugged him as well.

"Um…I think I'll just…go…" said Pit, his voice becoming quieter with every word. He slipped away from the loving couple, trying to be as cool as possible. He felt happy for both of them, especially Ike, who had become a great friend to him as well. Then, he smirked at the irony. Had they not have been kidnapped by Bowser, Dedede, Ganondorf, and Wario, he never would have formed a bond with Ike. He almost wanted to thank his ex-enemies for causing their friendship.

* * *

Samus and Sonic laughed as Wario continued to tell them stories. They were the only 3 still in the dining hall, enjoying themselves greatly.

"So my friend Don takes a bite out of it, and finally George reveals it wasn't chicken – he was eating MOOSE!" said Wario. Samus and Sonic roared with laughter. (I guess you had to hear the rest of the story to get it…). Wario sighed and drank the rest of his water. "Oh, all out? I'll go refill the pitcher,"

Wario got up to get some more water for the three of them. Sonic and Samus looked at each other.

"This is really fun," said Sonic smiling. Samus nodded. There was a small silence between them. "Hey, Samus…you were great when we were fighting Tabuu,"

"Hey, you saved us from his Off Waves," commended Samus.

"Ha, thanks! You were amazing though…I mean, usually the guy is supposed to risk his life for the girl, but you saved me just as much as I saved you…" said Sonic.

"What do you mean the guy is supposed to save the girl? You're acting like we're…"

Sonic looked at her. "You mean we're not…?"

"Are we?"

"…" Without saying anything, Sonic kissed her. Wario walked back in humming. He dropped the pitcher, allowing it to shatter as water went everywhere. Sonic and Samus didn't flinch, continuing what they were doing. Wario smiled and began to tear up. He left the room to give them their rightful privacy.

"Sonic…"

"Yes, Samus?"

"Thank you for everything. You saved me from making a huge wrong move…I almost joined Ganondorf and the others…but I thought about you, and how much you cared about me…so I didn't,"

"You're welcome, Samus,"

* * *

As the smashers shook hands, shared hugs, and spoke with one another, the time rolled by rapidly. It was soon midnight, and they were all very tired from their adventure. Mario said goodnight to all of them, their brave leader. Link, the valiant captain he was, was also wished a good sleep. However, a few couldn't get to sleep. Lucario and Captain Falcon stayed up late, and eventually began talking about all that had happened. Thinking about how, had it not been for the adventure, so many of the friendships they had witnessed that night in the main hall would not have been real. How so many of the smashers would have continued to have brawled it out, using only their fists and never their heart. It was impressive, and almost eerie to think about. How in the midst of betrayal new friends can be made, and old ones who never were needed could be lost…but still, another lesson learned was to never give up on those friends you lost. Because they could turn out to become one of your best allies. At the end of the day, you'll know who was there for you, who is there for you, and who always will be there for you.

* * *

That's it ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you to Yoshi2.1, Treadstone449, Emperor Éclair, Kaito X Len - Banana Split, and Coli Chibi. All of you read and reviewed, inspiring me to go on and, after way too many months, finish this. I truly hope you all enjoyed it, and to future readers, thank you as well. You haven't seen the last of me – I'll be floating around the Nintendo sections, so if you like what you saw here, look for me again!


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